Whatever It Takes II
by JPMod
Summary: Shion visits Konoha to request Naruto to ‘help’ her again, but not without changes and consequences. Spoilers. NaruShion, NaruSaku, Naru?. Chapter 4 up.
1. Chapter 1: Preparations

Disclaimer: All Naruto characters are the copyright of Masashi Kishimoto. I'm just borrowing them to write up a story with no intention of making any money. This is for fun. That's all. :) No copying of my story is allowed. That's stealing if anyone copies my story into his/her own story. Write your own story without taking others' works! (angry glare)

For those of you new to my story, I highly recommend to read "Whatever It Takes" first before reading "Whatever It Takes II". This story is the sequel to "Whatever It Takes", thus if you do not read the first story, things will not likely make sense for you in this story. Also again, I'm warning people that "Whatever It Takes" and this story sequel contains spoilers for the first Shippuuden movie. If you do not want to be spoiled, **please** do not read. Okay?

Now that is out of the way, for all the readers of "Whatever It Takes", I welcome you to the sequel, "Whatever It Takes II"! Over the past several months, when my muse took a vacation, I had thought about making a sequel to "Whatever It Takes," thus my brain came up with the idea of having Shion visit Konoha instead of having Naruto return to the Demon Country. Having Shion visit Konoha opens up many possibilities of what might happen during her stay, and it just makes for interesting plots revolving around Naruto. (snicker)

So hop on board for this interesting ride with this WIP, for I can imagine the drama unfolding for poor Naruto. ;p

MAJOR WARNING!: I thought I could wait until after certain unfolding current canon events in the manga, but my muse just can not wait to write up this story. So I just want to say that "Whatever It Takes II" is an AU after Chapter 425 of the manga. If future manga chapters tell things differently, I do not want to hear from people that I made a mistake in the story due to canon. I will not change anything in this story to fit manga chapters beyond Chapter 425, unless I can incorporate canon events in chapters made after the manga chapters were released. Okay? Good.

PAIRINGS NOTE!: I definitely will be making this a NaruShion and NaruSaku story, with possibilities it could end in NaruShionSaku. Yet there is a question mark regarding a **third** girl joining. Currently I'm not entirely sure whether I can make her work into the story well, for after all, she didn't interact much with Naruto in canon any way. Yet as the story progresses, I'll see whether she can be incorporated into becoming Naruto's third girl. And no, I will not be doing a poll. I already know who I want to be for the third girl, just as I said, I'll just have to see whether I can make her work well into the story.

Story rating: T (PG-13)(for minor sexual themes)  
Written: November 2008 -

Summary: Shion visits Konoha to request Naruto to 'help' her again, but not without changes and consequences. Spoilers. NaruShion, NaruSaku, Naru?.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Whatever It Takes II  
Chapter 1 - Preparations  
By JuPMod (aka JPMod)

The Elemental Countries. In the entire world, this group of countries together made up the shinobi civilization, where jutsus, chakra, and other shinobi abilities were a way of life for the people living in these lands. Five of these nations were the known super powers of this region – Fire, Wind, Earth, Water, and Lightning. Yet the smaller powers were no pushovers, even though all their lands combined would not measure to the vast acres of any one of the major five.

One of these smaller nations was Demon Country. Situated at the northeast corner of Fire Country, this state and its people were mostly peaceful, wanting very little to do with the clashes between the major powers or any nation that sought power. Ruled by a good and kind daimyo, they lived tranquil lives.

Yet despite their serenity and small size, Demon Country was the only hope the world has against a powerful being that sprout up once in awhile from the spirits of evil people – Mouryou. No number of powerful shinobi could stand against this evil, yet Demon Country has one weapon that no other nation has, the bloodline of their High Priestess. From generation to generation, the bloodline was the only thing that was able to stop Mouryou, sealing the creature away or destroying it at the cost of the priestess's life. It was this reason why Demon Country was respected and renowned by the other nations, and why the High Priestess, not the daimyo, was seen as a leader, despite she was not the true ruler of the small nation, although she did resign over the governorship of the village where she lived.

Residing in the Shrine/Palace of the High Priestess, the current high priestess was busy in her living quarters. She was instructing her staff in preparations for a trip, thus not only her clothes and few other items were ordered to be packed for the journey, but also her directions were given to those who would keep things running in the estate while she was gone.

Her name was Shion, and at 17 years of age, she was already considered gorgeous within the standards society would deem for women in general - long light-blonde thigh-length hair, well-toned shapely body, a good size bust, and a beautiful face topped by a pair of light-violet eyes no one else in the world has. A little more than 11 months ago, she has helped stop Mouryou from reeking havoc to the world, and since then, she has became more involved with the running of her village, when before, her top administrators had been doing the job. It was clear to many in the village that their teenage high priestess was becoming a true adult and leader, and for that, they were thankful and blessed the young girl has grown up so much since that epic war 11 months ago.

Yet for Shion, that war against Mouryou marked a special turning point in her life. Not just because it had changed her as a person, for also it enabled her to meet a special someone in her life – a young Konoha genin who helped her defeat Mouryou once in for all. When she had thought all hope was lost, he has lifted her spirits to believe otherwise. When she was about to sacrifice her life to destroy Mouryou, he had rescued her, and afterward, they as one obliterated the evil being, combining her powers with his. Not only would he be forever remembered in Demon Country's history as the young man who had worked together with High Priestess Shion to destroy Mouryou, he would forever hold a special place in Shion's heart, for he was the man she has fallen in love with – Naruto Uzumaki.

With hair in a long manageable braid while wearing a peach kimono with flower designs, the young priestess grinned slightly on her thoughts regarding the blond Konoha shinobi as she inspected a small trunk containing her clothes. Pleased with what she saw, Shion closed the trunk and nodded to two male servants, who took the trunk to be placed on the carriage outside in the front courtyard.

"I still have reservations about you going on this trip, Shion-sama," an older male voice spoke from behind the priestess.

Sighing, Shion turned to train a small reassuring grin at her chief administrator. "Osamu, I'm going to be fine. You make it sound just like it was nearly a year ago when I went off to the Sealing Shrine to seal away Mouryou. We're not at war today."

The middle-aged man nodded with a small sheepish grin. "True, but you may never know whether you might run across bandits and other criminals along route to Konoha. I and everyone here will feel more reassure if you reconsider taking your entire personal guard with you."

In response, Shion shook her head. "That will only attract more attention. During the war against Mouryou, if I had taken the entire guard with me, they would have all been slaughtered. I'd made the right choice to go with just my Konoha escorts, for we made great time in getting to the shrine without the burden of my personal guard with me." A wistful sigh escaped her at the memories of her head guard's stubbornness to not leave her. If only he had stayed, he would be alive today. Yet the blonde girl couldn't dispute that Taruho's sacrifice was not in vain.

Osamu saw the brief sorrow in his leader's eyes, thus he knew she was remembering Taruho. She had taken his death quite hard, so despite her making great strides in making more friends among her subjects since the Mouryou War, she has yet to fully recover from the lost of her closest friend. Yet in spite of his sympathies for her, he continued to press the issue that was at hand. "You weren't carrying luggage at the time, Shion-sama. This time, you will be taking luggage and one personal servant on a slow moving carriage with only one guard, not to mention you will be taking your barely two-month-old child. It'll take you least a **week** to get to Konoha. Anything can happen along the way during that time."

"One more time, Osamu, I'm going to be **fine**," Shion responded with a gentle tone that also said that she would not tolerate anymore arguments. "Before the end of today, Konoha should receive the letter we sent yesterday by messenger hawk. If all goes as planned, we'll get an escort of Konoha shinobi within a day or two after we depart from here." A small smirk graced the young priestess's face. "Surely you have not forgotten that shinobi can travel great distances much faster in shorter periods of time."

A chuckle from her administrator told her he has not forgotten that fact. "Of course I have not forgotten. Just as I said, many of us will feel better you will be safe with more guards. The news of the past year regarding the Akatsuki War is not very reassuring, especially given you will be staying in Konoha."

Shion frowned at that last statement. "The war is over, Osamu. Konoha has prevailed over the Akatsuki and Oto, and they had not been attacked since then. The Hidden Village in the Leaves has emerged stronger than they were before the war. It's another reason why I do not need my entire personal guard with me. I'll be staying with the strongest shinobi village on the entire continent, thus I'll be quite safe there." She paused for a moment to let her frown transformed into a small warm smile. "Besides, I'll be with Naruto."

Sighing in defeat, Osamu nodded with a tiny grin. He couldn't dispute how much the Konoha boy had helped in protecting his leader, not to mention the special place he held in her heart. In the past nearly 11 months, every time Shion had mentioned her child's father, her eyes and facial expression changed so warmly and confidently, it reminded all those who saw it what deep, true love looked like. "Of course, Shion-sama," Osamu nearly warmly whispered, "of course."

Turning around, the smiling young woman strolled toward a wooden crib, which was etched with Japanese figures and designs along the bars and base. "Other than meeting Naruto again, I very much want to see Konoha. I want to know about the village that so much influenced Naruto's life as well as the possibility our child will live there as well for some time," she finished upon arriving at the crib and peering down into it to the sleeping infant.

Smiling fondly at the sight of the young mother looking affectionately at her child, Osamu decided to take his leave. Being a father and husband, he have seen that look so many times on his wife whenever she had looked at their children with love. "I'll see to the final preparations, Shion-sama." With that said, the kind administrator bowed his head once before leaving mother and child alone as he left the room.

With a still tender expression, Shion reached down to gently pick-up the sleeping baby, making sure to wrap the blue blanket warmly around the small body. Holding her infant securely in her arms, light-violet eyes couldn't help but to twinkle at the beautiful sight of what she has personally created over the course of nine months. Wanting very much to do so, the High Priestess of Demon Country bended her head down to place a small kiss on her child's forehead.

"Soon, you'll be seeing your father, Little One," Shion whispered, eyes on the small peaceful face and the blond hair a shade darker than her own. "Your life is just beginning."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Many kilometers southwest of Demon Country, almost in the center of Fire Country, lay the most powerful shinobi village of the five major nations. It was not always the most dominant, since it was founded a century ago. Yet since the end of the Third Great War, it has taken over the top spot in all of the Elemental Countries, and it has grown even stronger since the end of the Akatsuki War and its war against Oto several months ago.

For this was Konohagakure no Sato, or Konha for short as many called this shinobi village of the Fire Country. It was also known as the Hidden Village in the Leaves. Surrounded by a high wall nearly three stories high and forest of lush greenery, Konoha was considered home to many civilians as well as the shinobi population, the Fire Country's primary fighting force.

Below the Hokage Monument, a series of five large stone faces of the Hokages carved out of the side of a cliff, sat the Hokage Tower, the main government building of Konoha. Here the Hokage, the village's leader and considered the most powerful village shinobi, worked to guide and run the village. All shinobi missions and other administration matters went through the Hokage and those who work in the Hokage Tower, so if anyone needed to seek any important matter regarding the village as a whole, one only have to come to this building.

Yet if one would happened to look inside the Hokage's office, one would happened to find the Godaime Hokage, Senju Tsunade, doing something unexpected. Instead of reading and/or signing papers, the granddaughter of the First Hokage was currently doing something other than her job – she was asleep in her chair with her head over folded arms on the desk with a bottle of sake next to her.

The office door opened to allow a brunette kunoichi, in her upper 20's, to enter as she held up a small scroll. "Tsunade-sama," Shizune began to speak, only to halt upon seeing the state of her blonde mistress. Spotting the sake bottle, guessed to be empty, the frowning medic-nin placed her right hand over her face for a moment and groaned. She had dealt with the Slug Sannin's drinking habits ever since she had begun her apprenticeship so long ago, so in the end, it really was no surprise to her. Yet it was one thing to be drinking during their traveling days, it was another to do so as Hokage. It made Shizune wonder how could any of the younger kunoichi, who idolized the famous female sannin, still able to look up to Tsunade with her looking like this.

After closing the door, the Godiame's assistant strolled over to the desk's left side and pondered to what would be the best way to wake up the blonde. Decided on a course of action, Shizune leaned down a bit to get close to the sleeping Hokage's head but leaving enough room to back off quickly. "Tsunade-sama, wake up! There's a pervert looking down your chest!"

As expected, Tsunade instantly awakened and stood up with an enraged face and right fist ready for action. "Where is he?!" she growled as her eyes wandered quickly around the room, looking for the so-called 'intruder'.

Hearing the giggling from her first apprentice and seeing there was no pervert in the room, the Godiame frowned as she relaxed her stance, knowing perfectly well what had happened. "I wish you do not use Naruto's way of waking me up," she groused before eying the amused younger woman.

"Do you want me to go back to using the bullhorn?" Shizune jibed with a smirk.

Sitting back down, Tsuande waved a hand negatively. "No," she answered with a slightly scrunched face, remembering the ringing in her ears after every time Shizune used a bullhorn to wake her up. Of course, the Fifth also knew another reason why her assistant had began using Naruto's way was that she saved money on buying a new bullhorn after each one had been destroyed by the awaken and frustrated sannin.

Letting out a puff of air, Tsunade relaxed totally. "Do you have something to tell me, or did you come in here just to harass me?" she finished with a raised eyebrow toward the brunette.

Expression still in amusement, Shizune nodded an affirmative to her mistress's question. "Hai," she began while holding out the scroll she had toward the blonde, who took it. "This had arrived minutes ago by messenger hawk. It's from Demon Country."

"Demon Country?" Tsunade raised both eyebrows at this news before pealing the scroll open. "We have not heard from them since the brief Mouryou War last year." As she read the scroll's contents, an amused grin began growing on the 50-something woman's face, and by the time she was finished, she was chuckling.

"What is it, Tsuande-sama?" Shizune asked out of curiosity, wondering what was on the scroll that has her long-time sensei giggling.

Tsuande replied with a wide grin. "It's from Priestess Shion." She rolled the scroll closed as she locked her eyes with her assistant's. "Surely, you remember the Demon Country's high priestess that had asked for Naruto's **help** with passing down her powers to the next generation of priestesses, eh?"

"Oh, my," Shizune spoke softly as she remembered now. "Did she give birth?"

"Yep," Tsuande answered with a proud smirk. "Two months ago actually." Placing the scroll on the desk, the Godiame shook her head. "With all the problems regarding the Akatsuki and the Sound Village during the past year, I have totally forgotten about Shion's pregnancy with Naruto's child," she chided herself before snickering. "I wonder how our hyperactive gaki will react to this news."

The younger medic-nin giggled at the mental image in her head. "He'll be quite surprise at first, but I say he'll be one proud father. Knowing him, he'll request to go visit Shion as soon as possible."

"No need," Tsuande dismissed the notion with a hand wave, her grin widening. "According to this letter, Shion is coming **here** to Konoha in one week, and she's bringing that little bundle of joy with her."

Shizune's eyes went wide with open-mouth joy. "Really?!" Getting a nod from her mistress in reply, the raven-haired woman began giggling even more. "Naruton-kun will be quite surprise."

"I know," Tsuande agreed with a smirk, imagining the reaction from her pseudo-son, before a dejected sigh escaped her. "Just too bad Naruto's team is currently away on assignment. Shion requested for a ninja team to rendezvous with her group to escort them the rest of the trip here. Naruto's team will not be back until **after** Shion arrives here."

A thoughtful frown covered Shizune's face as she thought about it, until an idea came up. "What about Team Gai? They are free to take the mission."

"Good idea," Tsuande approvingly grinned as she pointed momentarily at her subordinate. "Neji and Lee will be familiar faces to Shion, since they were part of the team that had escorted her to the Sealing Shrine last year. Get them, Shizune."

"Hai, Tsaunde-sama," the jounin medic-nin grinned in return before leaving the office immediately to summon Team Gai.

As Konoha's Fifth Hokage reached for a regional map of the area along the Fire and Demon Countries' boarder to prepare the mission briefing for Team Gai, she mentally softly laughed at the thought of what awaited for Konoha's future Hokage.

"_Things will definitely be quite interesting for Naruto after next week,"_ she mentally stated as the blonde woman spread opened the map to gaze at it. _"I have a feeling things will be changing once again for not only Naruto, but also for Konoha."_

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

End of Chapter 1

A/Ns:

1) All spelling & grammar mistakes are mine. This story has not been betaread/proofread, thus why there are mistakes posted. Please do not bother to crit me regarding these mistakes, given I'm not ever perfect when it comes to writing. No one is. Unless someone wants to volunteer to betaread/proofread my Naruto fics, I know future chapters and fics from me will have mistakes as well.

2) I'd placed Demon Country as one of the smaller countries that sits northeast of Fire Country. The map Tsunade showed at the beginning of the Shippuuden movie looks like the smaller northern countries, and only few of the smaller countries have been identified on the Elemental Countries map in canon overall. Given this, I'd thought I might as well place Demon Country as one of the few that sits not far from Rice Country, home of the Sound. There is no true indication exactly where Demon Country is on the map of the Elemental countries, so what I had written is just my interpretation.

For anyone's information, Fire Country does not boarder any of the other major four countries, with maybe the exception of Water Country (containing Kiri, the Hidden Village in the Mist). I recommend to all Naruto fanfic writers to find an online map of the Elemental countries, so you can see where the boarders are. I keep reading fics where the writer made Fire Country boarder Wind, Earth, and/or Lightning when it's clear that Fire Country does not boarder the others anyway.

3) There is no indication canon-wise of Shion's age. We can take a guess she is a teenager, given her height compared to Naruto's. Yet other than this, there is no way to determine whether she is Naruto's age or older than him.

I say this because I made Shion 17, a year older than Naruto, because I like to have another major difference to make her different than Hinata. Shion has the same hairstyle and facial shape as Hinata's, so if one just colors Shion's hair black-purplish and her eyes like a Hyuuga, one will get Hinata in appearance. So despite Shion have a different personality than Hinata's and no doubt longer hair than Hinata's, I like to give her least a year difference in age than Hinata's to make them really different.

4) Don't expect this story to contain lemons. It is rated T. I had thought of doing a lemon fic for "Whatever It Takes" to tell what had transpired during the three days Naruto was with Shion, but I decided against it, given I'm not that great when it comes to doing lemons anyway. Maybe some lime, but not lemons.

5) Last, does anyone know of some good websites to do research for Japanese names? I need some new names of some OCs, especially Naruto and Shion's child. I appreciate the help. :)


	2. Chapter 2: Meeting You Again Plus One

Disclaimer: All Naruto characters are the copyright of Masashi Kishimoto. I'm just borrowing them to write up a story with no intention of making any money. This is for fun. That's all. :) No copying of my story is allowed. That's stealing if anyone copies my story into his/her own story. Write your own story without taking others' works! (angry glare)

Wow! That was quite a warm reception I received for Chapter 1 of "WIT II" with so many reviews, story alerts, and favs! I'm quite honored many think this is going to become a great story. I'll do my best to not let any of you down. :)

And big thanks to everyone who had helped me find websites to help me with the names of not only the child, but also a couple of OCs. They are introduced in this chapter. :)

Story rating: T (PG-13)(for minor sexual themes)  
Written: November 2008 - present

Summary: Shion visits Konoha to request Naruto to 'help' her again, but not without changes and consequences. Spoilers. NaruShion, NaruSaku, Naru?.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Whatever It Takes II  
Chapter 2 – Meeting You Again Plus One  
By JuPMod (aka JPMod)

The sky was clear and blue with a few puffy clouds blowing with the air current, and the sun's rays shone warmth down onto the forest below, where the birds were chirping and singing as they went about their business as well as everything else in nature. Humans were no exception to the cycle of life as the world continued to revolve around them.

One group of humans, made up of 2 adults and 3 teenagers, were jumping through the trees with ease. It was easy to tell that these five were shinobi, given only this kind of people could so simply use the trees as a roadway to get to their destinations faster and quicker than mere walking could accomplished. Yet not far from their goal, they dropped out of the branches to land on the open road, and only then they began walking the rest of the way toward the place they called home.

"Ah, it's good to be home!" happily cried out a blond, blue-eyed, whisker-faced, young man as he spotted the huge main gates of Konoha in the distance.

"I say," a feminine voice said, making the teenage boy trained his sights to his right onto his pink-haired, kunoichi teammate, who grinned back at him. "It's great to have these long-duration missions occasionally to get out of the village, but they do make most miss home if they go on far more than a month."

"That is true, Sakura," an adult male voice replied from behind the pair. Both teenagers glanced at their silver-haired leader, whose right eye crinkled up into amusement while he was holding up an Icha Icha book in one hand. "Yet just wait until you're a jounin, thus sometimes you'll end up on missions that last as long as six months at least."

The blond boy snorted a laugh as his head swiveled back to face the road. "That's nothing compared to my training trip I had with Ero-sennin, Kakashi-sensei."

"Were you **paid** to go on that training trip with Jiraiya-sama, Naruto?" another teenage boy asked to the blond's right.

"Sai does have point, Naruto," prompted the second adult in the group, who walked besides Kakashi's left side. Everyone could tell his voice was amused and firm at the same time. "You and Jiraiya-sama weren't given any missions during that trip, so it makes me wonder how you two managed to get by without some income to pay for food, hotels, etc."

Uzumaki Naruto, Chuunin shinobi of Konoha, groaned at the memories. "We didn't stay at any village for long, Yamato-taichou. We mostly slept and ate camping out so not to attract unwanted attention whenever Ero-sennin began teaching me new techniques and stuff. He made me at times go fishing and scouring for food, like we're out in the middle of the wilderness."

Sakura blinked at this news. "He did?" Seeing her friend nodded, her green eyes blinked again. "Wow. I didn't know that. Tsuande-shishou had told me that Jiraiya made a lot of money off those perverted books he had written, thus she had figured he would pay for food, hotel, and other travel expenses."

"That's what I'd thought!" nearly screamed out the 16-year-old boy, his face scrunched up as he raised a hand with twitching fingers like he wanted to strangle someone. "Ero-sennin was a cheap-stake at times, stating his money was to be use for the spy network. However, I did found him occasionally drunk in the arms of call girls at bars and other places." His hand lowered as his face turned to a warm one while shaking his head at the memories of his late sannin sensei. "Ah, Ero-sennin. He was a pervert like no other."

As Naruto recalled everything that has happened ever since he had returned from his training trip, he admitted to himself that he had come a long way since then. The Akatsuki War had been intense and had cost many lives, especially when Pein attacked Konoha. He had grown tremendously during that war, yet not without a personal cost with the death of Jiraiya and as well as facing Sasuke, who had joined the Akatsuki. His best friend truly have turned traitor when the Uchiha vowed to destroy Konoha for Danzo and the elder council members' connection with the Uchiha Massacre. No matter how much he and Sakura had tried to reach him, Sasuke would not listen. In the end, Naruto had fought against him for the safety of the village and won by ending Sasuke's life. It had not been a great time for the blond at all, not after all the work he and Sakura went through to try to get Sasuke to return to Konoha peacefully.

Seeing the somewhat sad expression on Naruto's face, Sakura immediately knew what her teammate was thinking about. Reaching out, she placed a comforting right hand on his left shoulder and gave a warm, soothing grin as those sapphire eyes locked with her emerald ones. No words were necessary as their eyes spoke for them, and after a couple minutes, the young man returned her grin with one of his own prior to her letting go of his shoulder and him setting his gaze on the road in front of them again.

Sighing as she continued to watch her friend, Sakura wondered if the wound from Sasuke's death would ever be healed, not only for Naruto but for herself as well. She had been shocked, along with Naruto, upon hearing of Sasuke joining the Akatsuki, and once it was clear their former teammate was hell bent to destroy Konoha, they had no choice but to fight him to the end. Her heart had been shattered when she saw her blond comrade took the life of his best friend, but she knew it was nothing compared to the guilt Naruto was going through. In the end, she had never blamed Naruto for what needed to be done to protect Konoha, but Sakura knew deep down he would always blame himself, even if she told him hundreds of times that she has forgiven him.

Yet since that eventful day, Naruto has moved on the best he could, and the pinkette couldn't help but feel proud of his accomplishments. They had all worked together to end the war with Oto quickly soon after the Akatsuki were destroyed. The massive rebuilding of Konoha was a huge undertaking that required shinobi to complete many missions to bring in much needed revenue for the construction, thus Naruto and Team 7 had done their part to work hard to do loads of missions as possible. When the Chuunin Exam had arrived, Naruto participated, and it came to no surprise that he passed with flying colors that the promotion was immediately followed by a celebration with all of Naruto's friends and comrades participating.

Indeed, Naruto had have come a long way.

Sighing again, but this time with pride at the blond, Team 7's medic thought of the other wars Konoha has fought in the past year. They may have been brief, but they were no less important than the Akatsuki War had been - the war against the Air Shinobi and the Mouryou War. Both wars have cost lives, but in the end, Konoha has prevailed over those who wanted to harm others in the world, especially the innocent.

Prideful grin turning into a thoughtful frown, Sakura's mind thought of Priestess Shion once her memories focused on the Mouryou War. She was so busy with missions, rebuilding Konoha, and other things in life, that she almost forgotten about the Head Priestess of Demon Country. Doing simple mental calculations, her eyes went wide on the indication on how much time has passed since she last saw the priestess. _"Given she didn't ask Naruto to return so soon after we left Demon Country, it was clear then she must have became pregnant. Then this means she has given birth…" _

"Naruto?" the still-thoughtful kunoichi began.

Konoha's Jinchuuriki once more fixed his eyes on his teammate as Team 7 approached their village's huge main gates. "Yeah, Sakura-chan?"

"Do you remember Priestess Shion from Demon Country, right?" asked the pinkette.

A confusing grin came to the young man's face. "Of course, I remember Shion. You know she and I have been keeping in touch by letters."

"What guy wouldn't remember about their first lover?" Kakashi teasingly spoke out, causing Naruto and Sakura to roll their eyes, Yamato to snicker, and Sai to amusedly grin. Ever since his student lost his virginity to the beautiful Demon Country priestess, the silver-haired jounin just loved to rib the teenager occasionally regarding his 'first time'. It was too much fun watching Naruto became irritated with a blushing face.

Knowing better than to reply to his jounin-sensei's teasing remark, Naruto ignored him and focused again on Sakura and her question. "What about Shion, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura pressed on. "When was the last time you received a letter from her?"

Confused to why she wanted to know, the blond chuunin thought about it for a moment before answering. "I knew the last one was before we went on this long mission."

Silence came when everyone in the group thought Naruto was going to elaborate, but he didn't, prompting the team's medic to ask for more. "What did the letter say?"

Naruto shrugged. "She's doing well and the baby is doing okay inside of her. Why did you asked?"

Blinking in bafflement that he has not figured it out, Sakura stopped walking, making everyone else did so too right at the threshold of the main gates, where the two chuunin gate guards, Izumo and Kotetsu, sat watch at the small gatehouse as they noticed Team 7's appearance. "Naruto are you kidding me?" the pinkette nearly shouted. "Do you realize we've been away from Konoha for little more than two months since that last letter?"

Now Naruto was really confused. "Yeah, I know that, Sakura-chan," he replied before placing his hands behind his head. "The Fire Daimyo sure took us everywhere he went, that for sure." His lips formed a frown. "I still don't like the idea of being used for public relations like that though."

This time it was Sakura's turn to frown with a sigh. "We know that, Naruto, we know that."

Sometime after Naruto had been promoted to Chuunin, the Fire Daimyo wanted the Fire Country's newest hero to join the 12 Guardians. The young man was reluctant, for he wanted to stay in Konoha to be there for his people. Tsunade had offered an alternative of having Team 7 for two months be temporary guardians on top of the daimyo's already 12 Guardians. This way the daimyo could have his wish and, at the same time, provided great publicity for Konoha. Naruto didn't like the notion of being used like a display trophy, but he relented after Tsunade 'persuaded' the blond boy that it was for the good of the village. Team 7 ever since occasionally have to deal with Naruto's complaints regarding their mission as they traveled the Fire Country and other places with the Fire Daimyo.

Ignoring Inner Sakura to slap Naruto silly, Sakura placed her hands on her hips and gave her best lecturer expression that she usually bestowed on her naïve, long-time friend. "Naruto, have you forgotten what I taught you months ago regarding pregnancy for women, so you can better understand what Shion was going through? As a medic, I know the average pregnancy normally lasts roughly 9 months or so. It has been more than **11 months**, since you last seen Shion. Do the math and it is obvious that she must have given birth to your child roughly 2 months ago, **after** you received your last letter from her and the start of our mission."

At first, the blond couldn't understand what his teammate was talking about, until her words slowly and surely began to make sense in his head. His mouth slowly gapped open as his eyes went wide. "Are you saying…Shion already had given birth by now?"

"Yes, Naruto, that is exactly what I'm saying," Sakura sighed out of mild frustration that it has taken him some time to get the message. With the exception of shinobi combat, Naruto was so clueless at times that she wouldn't be surprise if it required a small cabinet of people to help him run the government if he became Hokage one day.

After a minute of the rest of Team 7 and the gate guards watching the shocked Jinchuuriki, they were caught unawares as Naruto suddenly grabbed his hair and shouted so loudly that they wondered if they would become deaf. "AAAAAAH! SHION HAS ALREADY GIVEN BIRTH! WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST SAY SO, SAKURA-CHAN! I HAVE TO GET TO THE POST OFFICE!" The next thing they all saw was a cloud of dust left in the wake of high speeding teenage boy heading toward the Konoha Post Office, making everyone blinked at what they just saw.

"Wow," Kotetsu said after a minute of silence as he stood up from his seat and gazed at the general direction Naruto had went. "I have not ever seen anyone run so fast as Gai or Lee."

Still in his chair, Izumo shrugged. "I don't blame him. We've seen plenty of guys act like that upon hearing their first child was being born."

Kotetsu chuckled. "Yeah, but how many of those guys were 16 years old?" After another chuckle, the spiky raven-haired chuunin shook his head. "Sixteen years old and already a father. I don't know whether to envy or pity him."

Izumo raised an eyebrow at his long-time comrade and friend. "When was the last time you have a girlfriend?"

Dark eyes narrowed down at the seated man. "Do you have to remind me that, Izumo?"

A devious smirk shaped on Izumo's face. "Least Naruto is ahead of you in the game, Kotetsu." All he received in reply was a small growl and bigger glare from his standing friend.

Shaking himself out of his stupor, Kakashi chuckled. It was going to be interesting to know whether Naruto's child was a girl or a boy, for after all, he remembered that request Priestess Shion asked of Tsunade if she gave birth to a boy and not a girl. "Come on. Let's report-in to the Hokage, and let Naruto sort out his **mail**."

Yamato snorted a laugh at the emphasis as he followed his senpai. Sai came next with an amused grin. Shaking her head, Sakura took up the rear as she trailed the three men with a muttered "Baka," obviously referring to the hysterical boy of a teammate of hers.

As Izumo and Kotetsu watched Team 7 strolled away toward the Hokage Tower, both started to snicker once the three shinobi and one kunoichi were out of hearing range.

"Should we have told them about the **special guest,** who has arrived a few days ago?" a smirking Kotetsu asked.

Izumo, his expression matching that of his friend, shook his head. "Nah, they'll find out eventually, especially Naruto."

Both chuunin snickered loudly, wondering how long it would be until things would get very interesting in Konoha.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Once dumping onto the kitchen table the load of mail he picked up from the Konoha Post Office, which he'd told them to hold his mail while he was away for the past two months, Naruto shifted through the letters for the one from Shion. Most people today used regular letter paper and envelopes to write letters, but the Demon Country's head priestess wrote her letters on scrolls, which were rarely seen through the regular mail compare to how the shinobi villages' governments communicate through messenger hawks and other birds. Yet the whisker-faced boy couldn't find any scroll with the Demon Country Priestess's main seal in the pile. Mostly junk, a few bills, and variety of regular letters, which he would burn later given he knew they were from fan-girls.

"_It's not here!" _Naruto mentally exclaimed before an idea came to his head. _"Could Baachan be holding it?"_

Taking many steps to toss his backpack and Toad Summoning scroll into this bedroon, the Nine Tails Jinchuuriki prepared to shunshin to the Hokage Tower as he had done from the Post Office to his apartment. He had been quite firmed months ago that Kakashi teach him the Shunshin Jutsu, since he wanted to use the teleportation technique to get to his destinations within Konoha faster. The boy thought if he could easily master Kage Bushin, Shunshin should be a breeze. Regardless of his expectations, it had taken him several days, but in the end, he had mastered it much to his delight and Tsuande's pain, given he sometimes shunshin into her office unannounced.

With his backpack and scroll gone, Naruto disappeared from his apartment in a cloud of smoke, only to reappear just outside the Hokage's office in the hallway. Without even knocking, the blond swept into the room like a hurricane. "Baachan!" he shouted out, startling the room's occupants of Tsuande, Shizune, and Team 7.

"Damn it, gaki!" the Godaime roared as she stood up from her chair, glaring daggers at the approaching chuunin. "Do you ever knock?! Your team was in the middle of briefing me about your mission with the Fire Daimyo!"

"Yeah, Naruto!" Sakura yelled out, echoing her sannin sensei. "Will you ever learn?!" Then again, she knew this was Naruto. He has matured much in the past year, but he still acted like a little boy at times.

Looking like the women's words didn't affect him, the blonde Jinchuuriki came right up to the front of the Hokage's desk, locked his eyes with his leader's, and blurted out a question that caught everyone unsuspectingly. "Baachan, did you receive a letter from Shion after I left two months ago?!"

Tsunade blinked at her chuunin subordinate, before she looked at Shizune, who also was confused to what he was referring. Based on what he asked, both women have a good guess to what the boy was getting at. Wanting to confirm her suspicions, the long-haired, blonde woman trained her eyes back on Naruto with a raised eyebrow. "What are you talking about, Naruto?"

Letting out a slightly annoyed sigh, Tsuande's pink-haired apprentice started to explain. "Prior before leaving on the mission to guard the Fire Daimyo, Naruto's last letter from Shion stated she was still pregnant with their child, according to what Naruto told us as we just arrived at main gates today. Yet given 11 months has passed since Naruto was with Shion, it's clear that Shion must have given birth 2 months ago **after** we started the mission. When I told him of this, he ran right away to the post office to pick up his mail."

Sakura trained her green eyes on her friend. "There was no letter from Shion at all, Naruto?" she asked out of puzzlement. It made no sense that the priestess would not inform her child's father of the birth.

"None!" Naruto replied, clearly upset. "Why she did not write to me?!"

Now understanding the young man's dilemma, Tsunade nodded and held a sympathetic face, even though she was giggling inside on knowing **precisely** why Shion didn't write a letter. A side glace to her assistant showed that Shizune too held a sympathetic expression but her dark eyes were twinkling. Both women knew this was going to be fun.

"Well," the female Hokage began, gaining everyone's attention, "now that I know what you're asking of me, Naruto, I'm sorry to say that I have not receive any letters from Priestess Shion."

"What!" Naruto cried out immediately before schooling his features into a determine one. "Then I request permission to take leave so I can go visit Shion. I want to see my child, Baachan."

An incredulous expression came to the room's lone teenage kunoichi's face. "We just came back from our mission, Naruto, and now you wanted to immediately set out to Demon Country? I know you want to see your child, but you can wait a few days to rest and catch up with our friends."

Tsuande pointed momentarily at her student in agreement. "Sakura is right, Naruto. Request denied."

"What?! This is not fair!" the Kyuubi host shouted out, quite upset now. "After two months on a long mission going all over the place with the Fire Daimyo, I have some leave coming to me, and I want to take it to go to the Demon Country!"

"Well, you're not going, Naruto, and that's **final**," the Slug Sannin stated with some heat to get her point across. Her face returned to a soft, considerate one. "Surely you can wait awhile before heading out, right?"

Naruto crossed his arms, his face scrunched in a stubborn pout. They all knew he was one of the most stubbornness shinobi in all of Konoha. He could be reasonable at times, but once he has his mind set on doing something, it was a bit hard at times to convince him to do otherwise. Yet everyone was relieved to see his pout soften a little, knowing he couldn't do anything anyway. "I guess," he admitted, nearly whispering with eyes looking at the floor.

"Good," Tsuande chirped with a grin. "A few days ago, a special guest has arrived here at Konoha, and the person wants to meet Team 7, specifically you, Naruto."

"Eh?" blue eyes shot upward to focus again on Konoha's first female Hokage, while the reactions from the rest of Team 7 were a mix of curiosity, surprise, and slight irritation. "We just came back from our mission with the Fire Daimyo, Baachan, and now we're going to be guarding another high, fancy person?"

Tsuande gave a chiding smirk. "I didn't say anything you'll be guarding our guest, Naruto. I said our guest wants to meet you."

Rubbing the back of his head with his right hand, the blonde chuunin produced a bashful, small grin. "Well, ever since the Chuunin Exams, it seems everyone wants to hire Team 7 just to meet me. Can you blame me?"

Sakura chimed in. "Naruto is right, Shishou. It's getting annoying to have so many people coming to Konoha to hire shinobi help but asking for Team 7. Surely, they can understand that there are many other talented teams here and not just Team 7."

Raising a palm up temporary to halt any more comments from her student, Tsunade nodded in concurrence. "It's why I do not allow clients to tell me what team they want. If Team 7 is available and suited for the job, I will comply with the request. If not, the client has the option to go elsewhere if they can not accept another team. Thank, Kami, there has not been a single client who has refused the team I gave them, since they'd wanted Konoha's help anyway."

After seeing Team 7 and Shizune nodded in understanding, the Godaime grinned and pointed toward the two adults of the team before her. "Kakashi, Yamato, you can give me a full report in two days." Both jounins gave a single nod that they understood, before their leader gestured to the entire team except Naruto. "You can leave your backpacks here. I want to introduce you to our guest now," she stated prior to going around the desk to head toward the exit.

"Why can't we go later, Shishou?" Sakura asked what the rest of the team wondered as they all followed the last sannin out of the office after they dropped their backpacks.

A sly grin formed on the Godiame's face. "She requested to see Naruto as soon as Team 7 came home."

"Eh?" Naruto and Sakura immediately reacted together. Both were now even more curious to whom this guest was, now that they knew it was a woman.

Sai looked passive as usual from the outside, but inside he was just as curious. The clues, he had gathered so far, didn't reveal much of this woman who has an interest in Naruto.

Bringing up the rear of the group as they left the Hokage Tower, the two jounin men of Team 7, compared to their young charges, have a good idea of the identity of this woman.

"Are you thinking the same person as me, Kakashi-senpai?" Yamato whispered as he leaned toward his superior.

The Copy Nin gave a single head nod in confirmation. "Yeah, Tsuande-sama has no real reason to deny Naruto his request to go to Demon Country, plus that slight **look** she gave Shizune sure says she knows something regarding Shion." His right eye crinkled into a crescent grin. "This is going to be fun." Yamato softly chuckled in agreement.

Several minutes passed, and it was apparent to Team 7 that they were heading toward the village's center and a particular 8-stories hotel known for catering to the high class but not so fancy. It has luxury suites on the top most floors with modest rooms on the rest. During peek times, liked during the Chuunin exams, the hotel could able to accommodate high-class officials, like kages, daimyos, etc., as well as regular civilians and shinobi. The central location was ideal to provide guests with good walking distance to main village sites – the Hokage Monument, Hokage Tower, Chuunin exam stadium, shopping district, etc. It was not a cheap, everyday, travel hotel, which was for certain to anyone who has been inside.

Walking inside and passed the lobby, where a few people and hotel workers bowed in respect toward the Hokage, the group veered left and led down a hallway by their leader to an elevator situated next to the staircase at the end of the hallway. There they rode up to the top floor and exited into another hallway, which ran the length of the building. It was easy to see that at the halfway mark of the carpeted hallway stood two sets of polished, wooden double doors, each set across the hall from each other. Tsuande guided them to the one on the right and knocked on one sturdy door.

A few moments went by until the door opened to reveal a young man with brownish-black hair. At first glance, he appeared to be in his mid 20's. His brown eyes went wide for a moment upon recognizing Tsunade. "Hokage-sama, this is a pleasant surprise. Please come on in." He stood aside to let the bosom kunoichi and the rest inside, and once they passed, he closed the door.

It came to no surprise that the suite was fitting for a high-class person, for after all, Tsuande, Shizune, and all on Team 7 have been in royal palaces, castles, and other places of daimyos, kings, queens, etc., to tell. The central room was huge with a circle of cushioned chairs and couches in front, a polished oak dining table for eight in the middle with a crystal chandelier overhead, and a few more cushioned chairs and a single couch at the rear of the room, all facing windows and a balcony, showing a spectacular view of the Hokage Monument. A plush rug covered the floor while a few paintings adorned the walls, which have polished oak moldings on top and bottom. Three oak doors were on both sides of the room, and it was easy to tell they led to the bedrooms and bathrooms. Overall, the suite screamed 'luxury.'

As the young man, who wore a uniform that seemed familiar to Naruto and Sakura but not to Kakashi, walked around the group to face them as they stood on a small foyer one step higher than the overall room, a young woman, with strawberry-blonde hair, came out of the far-right door and approached them. "Hokage-sama," she began as she drew near, "what brings you by?"

"I'm here to introduce you to some people," the Godaime smiled at the woman and the man, who stepped down to stand besides the woman. "May I introduce you to Team 7," she gestured to the five-man team. Both the man and woman slightly gasped at the news as the blonde Hokage started the introductions, indicating each team member. "Yamato," who grinned with a head bow. "Hatake Kakashi, leader of Team 7," and the jounin gave a nod with a simple "Hello." "Sai," who followed Yamato's greeting. "Haruno Sakura," and the pinkette grinned with a "Hello." "And last, Uzumaki Naruto," and the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki grinned and said his hello with a small hand wave.

"You're Uzumaki Naruto?" the strawberry-blonde woman gazed at Naruto.

"Yeah, I am," Naruto confirmed with a single nod. Inside his head however, he was moaning. _"Oh, great, another hero worshipper."_ He knew his 13-year-old self wouldn't mind the attention, for after all, he had dreamed of getting such attention his whole life. Now however, he wished he didn't have such hero status, for it was getting tiresome after a while. He longed for the days of normalcy of waking up and doing whatever he needed to do without someone practically worshipping the ground where he stood. Least most of Konoha's villagers and shinobi didn't hero-worship him compared to most outsiders. Well… Not counting Konoha's Uzumaki Naruto Fangirls Club that was.

"Team 7," Tsunade continued, snapping Naruto out of his thoughts, "may I introduce you to Yamada Shinobu," she gestured to the man, who grinned and bowed at the waist, "and Narita Miyako," who did the same thing as Shinobu. "They're from Demon Country."

Both Naruto and Sakura went wide-eyed as they spoke together as one. "Demon Country?!"

Kakashi nodded. "Ah, I thought I recognize that uniform," he said while pointing at Shinobu. "That's the uniform of Priestess Shion's palace guards."

Shinobu grinned at the silver-haired jounin. "You're correct, Hatake-san. I'm Shion-sama's personal guard. I was assigned the position a week after Taruho-senpai's funeral, and in his honor of fulfilling his role, I'll do my best to protect Shion-sama with everything I have."

Now that they knew, Naruto and Sakura could see that their jounin-sensei was right. Shinobu's uniform was **exactly** liked Taruho's with the exception that Shinobu was not wearing the hat.

"I'm Shion-sama's personal assistant," Miyako spoke, gaining everyone's attention. "I'm also a medic and her mid-wife, who helped delivered her baby two months ago."

Looking at her, Team 7 could see that Miyako was likely in her early to mid 20's with her shoulder-blade length, strawberry-blonde hair tied in a ponytail with the bangs loose and free to curtain her face. She wore a long-sleeved, short-skirted, light-green yukata over black slacks with black slipper shoes on her feet. A simple black slash was belted around her waist to complete the outfit. Overall, she appeared quite pretty with a healthy feminine figure and light make-up on her face.

"Wait a minute," Sakura blurted out in revelation, her eyes on the pair before her. "If Shion's personal guard and assistant are here, then that means Shion —"

"Miyako?" a female voice interrupted the pink-haired medic-nin as it called out from behind the far-right door. "Do we have guests?"

Blue eyes went wide upon recognizing the voice. "That's Shion!" Naruto nearly shouted, before he brushed past Shinobu and Miyako and headed toward the rear-right door. After 11 months, he still remembered her voice well.

Yet the blond Chuunin was quickly stopped by Miyako as she rushed to stand in front of him with palms faced up in a halting motion. "You stay here," she ordered with an assuring grin, leaving him at the area between the dining and rear sections as she went to the rear-right room. It was clear she did not want him to enter the room where Shion was, thus it baffled him to as why. Yet he knew better to complain, knowing it was perhaps something private.

After Miyako entered the room, a few shuffles were heard, and a few minutes later, the door opened again to let a blonde priestess leave as she held a blanket-wrapped infant in her arms. Yet a few steps out the door with her assistant behind her, Shion stopped, her light-purplish eyes locked on the blond young man and those expressive sky-blue eyes of his, and after 11 months since they last seen each other, time stood still once more as each took in one another.

It has been a long time since she last seen him, and Shion concluded that the photos, he had sent to her along with his letters, just did not do the real person justice, as she warmly grinned while examining him from head to toe. He was obvious a few inches taller, and his hair was a bit longer and wild-like as some hanged over his village headband. His shinobi attire was not much different than a year ago. Instead of orange pants, Naruto wore black, and his jacket was still the same black/orange one he wore. The only addition were the green, chuunin vest he wore openly over the jacket, which were all underneath a red trench coat with short sleeves and black flames along the hem.

Yet for the Demon Country priestess, she could see that Naruto was still the same caring person he was before. It was told all in those sapphire eyes looking at her, and she couldn't help but be glad he has not changed that aspect of his personality, for it was what made him be him.

Naruto smiled warmly at the first woman he loved as she stood there in a regular, peach yukata with white socks and zori sandals on her feet. Despite that she was one year older than him; he could tell that he was now taller than her by an inch or two, even though she has grown a bit as well. Shion's light-blonde hair was still the same length, but now it was in a braid. He even noticed that she started to use make-up, noting the light-pink lip-gloss. Overall, she was a woman of beauty, and it was great to see her in-person again.

Finally coming out of his spell-induced state, Naruto realized his team was now behind him with Tsuande, Shizune, and Shinobu facing him and Shion to the left. He took in the warm smirk on Baachan's face and Shizune containing from giggling, thus he knew he was looking like a love-sick fool a few moments ago.

With slight blushing cheeks, Naruto nervously chuckled and met Shion's eyes once more. "It has been a long time since we last seen each other, Shion. It's good to see you again."

"Like wise, Naruto-kun," Shion warmly greeted in return.

Blue eyes focused from the priestess's face to what she was holding. The Hokage-wannabe blinked in slight awe, knowing what this child was. "Shion… Is this our…" he trailed off, completely a lost for words now. He glanced at Tsuande, who gave a warm, reassuring grin and nod to confirm his guess, before again eying the child in Shion's arms.

Sakura, who took a few steps to stand just behind her blond teammate to his right, gazed at the infant and immediately detected the blue blanket. She mentally frowned, knowing what that blanket meant. _"Oh, no! You've got to be kidding me!"_

Seeing that he was speechless, Shion smiled and took several steps before she was standing just in front of him. She briefly and fondly looked at her child before again eying the child's father. "This is your **son**, Naruto-kun." The blonde girl grinned and nodded, when he had raised his eyes to look at hers prior to returning to look at the baby boy. "His name is Uzumaki Haruki."

"Uzumaki?" asked Naruto curiously at his son's mother.

"Hai," Shion replied with a confirming grin. "I want him to have his father's family name." Her expression turned into a mild, worrisome one. "Is this okay with you, Naruto-kun?"

"Of course, it is!" he quickly exclaimed with a chuckle. "Just I thought you would have given him your family name." Looking more closely at his son, Naruto realized the little tyke have the same blue eyes as his with straight blond hair a darker shade than Shion's.

Looking at the little baby, Sakura grinned warmly, thinking Haruki was cute. Yet when she raised her head to look at the infant's father, her grin faltered. _"Does Naruto know the significance of Shion having a boy? He either forgotten or does know, just he's not showing it. Knowing him, I bet it's the former." _

At the same moment, Kakashi's thoughts were on similar lines as his former-student. Yet he came up with a way to bring up the issue without asking out bluntly and rudely. "Shion-sama…" he started, and after he gained everyone's attention, he pressed onward. "Did you come all the way to Konoha just to introduce Naruto to his son, or is there more to your visit than just this?"

Tsunade and Shizune did their best not to chuckle, for they knew what Kakashi was really asking. Yamato smirked, Sai grinned, and Shinobu and Miyako softly snickered with closed months. Sakura however seemed to frown some more.

As for Shion, she mentally smirked and chuckled, for she immediately knew what **exactly** the famous Copy Ninja was asking. Outside, she nodded once with a calm grin. "No, I didn't come all this way just to surprise Naruto-kun, Hatake-san." Her light-violet eyes locked onto Naruto's blues. "I'm here to ask Naruto to keep his promise to me."

"Eh?" Naruto right away responded in bafflement. "What promise are you…" His words wandered off as his mind remembered what he was told 11 months ago by Tsunade.

"_Neji gave me this scroll which is a letter from Shion to me. It verified what Neji reported regarding Shion choosing Naruto to father her child. Yet it also contains a request... a request for Naruto to return in eleven months time if Shion's child is found to be a boy and not a girl. She needs to have a daughter to pass on her powers." _

"Oh…" Konoha's Jinchuuriki softly said, as his cheeks blushed pink. "**That** promise." He nervously chuckled and scratched the back of his head with his right hand. "You want me to **'help'** pass on your powers to the next priestess, right, Shion?"

Shion's light-violet eyes lit up with mirth while her mouth grinned in triumph. "Hai, Naruto-kun. That is the promise you gave me. You did say, 'I'll do whatever it takes.'"

Hearing the snickers from Tsunade, Kakashi, Yamato, and Shinobu and seeing Shizune and Miyako giggled with a hand over their mouths, Naruto sweatdropped as he again uneasily chuckled with his cheeks turning redder.

Sakura, however, was the only one in the entire group **not **enjoying the scene. Her emerald eyes narrowed on the blonde priestess, who was not aware of the pinkette's ire. "'HELP' MY ASS!" Inner Sakura voiced loudly. "SHE CAN'T WAIT TO GET INTO NARUTO'S PANTS AGAIN! PUT A CHASTITY BELT ON HIM! SHA!"

Mentally, Tsuande's teenage apprentice rolled her eyes despite being amused at the same time. It was odd though to imagine Naruto wearing a chastity belt, especially since he was not a virgin. Yet the young woman inwardly groaned that Shion would definitely soon be bedding her teammate again after 11 months since the last time.

"_Naruto, you baka,"_ Sakura mentally scowled. _"As I said 11 months ago, that nindo of yours sometimes get you in trouble."_

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

End of Chapter 2

A/Ns:

1) I'd decided to wait until after Chapter 427 of the manga was released before starting to write up this chapter. I'd wanted to know the fate of Kakashi, whether he lives or dies. It seems he will live, if the manga hinted as such. I hope.

So after much thought, I'd decided, as you read in this chapter, not to let Kakashi die. I can't see Naruto loosing **another** sensei after the death of Jiraiya, and I hope Kishimoto will not make it a curse in killing off another beloved character if the current plotline seems to be an indication. Yet sadly, I kept to canon that Jiraiya died. Sorry, my fellow Jiraiya fans, but he has to die in order for Naruto to grow up somewhat in my fic. :(

2) I do not want to hear anyone bitch about me killing off Sasuke. As of now in the manga, Sasuke is a Grade A bastard. He finally got his revenge against Itachi but found out about the truth, and now he wants to destroy Konoha? In such a situation, if Naruto can't talk the guy out of revenge, then there is only one thing to do, kill him. It's either him or the village, and if Naruto wants to protect Konoha, he knows he has to kill Sasuke if the guy can't be reasonable.

As for Sakura, well, yeah, she too will be hurt if she has to choose between Sasuke and Konoha's safety. She has come far from the fan-girl she was upon graduating from the Academy, thus why I think she will not ever blame Naruto for doing what he need to do to protect Konoha.

3) To give a better picture of the hotel Shion is staying at, it's like the Marriott. I've been in a Marriott hotel, and it's quite a nice hotel. I can tell it can cater to the high-class, but it has good modest rooms for the average person. It's not one of those travel hotels that one sees off major highways, for the Marriott chain are in the center of business areas, etc. Given the high-class guests that arrive in Konoha during the Chuunin exams and other occasions, such luxury hotels would definitely be in the village. I can't see the Fire Daimyo staying in a cheap everyday hotel, right? ;)

4) The following are the definitions of the names I'd chosen for Shion's two servants and the baby…

Shinobu – endurance (I thought it would be a fitting name for Shion's personal guard.)

Miyako – beautiful March child (Guess what month Miyako was born in. ;p)

Haruki – radiance sun (I thought given he has blond hair with blue eyes, this name would be fitting for the tyke. :) )

Don't ask why I chosen the family names for Shinobu and Miyako. I'd just randomly chosen them from a list. That's all. No meanings behind choosing the names what so ever.

Speaking of names, I'm quite aware that in Japan, the family name is mentioned first then the person's personal name. Yet this fic has been written with thoughts in mind that it would be read mostly by people in countries where the personal name is mentioned first then the family name. I grew up this way, so I'm going to write it this way.

Besides, I really can't see it is hard for most people to figure out the names once they read how any Naruto character's name has been written. If one reads in a fic the family name is mentioned first (Uzumaki Naruto), then the person will know to expect this for all names in the fic. If one reads the first name first (Naruto Uzumaki), then one should expect this for all names in the fic. I have no problem adjusting myself easily this way. :)

(Added on 12/29/08: Okay, I changed my mind regarding the arrangement of the names. I went back to change the names to show the family name first and personal name last. Some great fics, like "Team 8," have the Japanese way, so after much thought, I'd decided to do it this way.)

5) Since I don't know it will be possible for me to get out the next chapter before the holidays, I want to wish everyone a joyous holiday season and Happy New Year! I'll see you all in 2009! Dattebayo! (grin)


	3. Chapter 3: Vows Made

Disclaimer: All Naruto characters are the copyright of Masashi Kishimoto. I'm just borrowing them to write up a story with no intention of making any money. This is for fun. That's all. :) No copying of my story is allowed. That's stealing if anyone copies my story into his/her own story. Write your own story without taking others' works! (angry glare)

Once more, I thank everyone for the great support for this fic! The reviews, favs, and story alerts for "WIT II" certainly brought a smile to my face! (smiles)

Story rating: T (PG-13)(for minor sexual themes)  
Written: November 2008 - present

Summary: Shion visits Konoha to request Naruto to 'help' her again, but not without changes and consequences. Spoilers. NaruShion, NaruSaku, Naru?.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Whatever It Takes II  
Chapter 3 – Vows Made  
By JuPMod (aka JPMod)

Eyelids slowly blinked open, allowing sapphire orbs to gaze up at the ceiling. The owner of those eyes let a yawn escaped his being as he stretched his arms upward before training his sight to the night table where his alarm clock laid. It was just passed 8 AM, and since he felt that he no longer had the need to sleep, he casually gotten out of his double bed and padded toward the nearest window, which was adjacent to the bed. After pulling up the blinds, a small grin lit his face as he gazed at the wonderful view of Konoha and the Hokage Monument seen at an angle.

For Uzumaki Naruto, the site was something he loved the most regarding his new apartment. It not only provided the same view he had of the monument that his old apartment gave, but it also gave a better view of the village, especially the areas that were still under construction.

A sigh escaped the blond as he slightly frowned. Even months later after that nearly devastating attack by Pein, the village was still not back to normal, and he had a feeling, it would likely not entirely ever be back to normal. Much like the Kyuubi's attack had done more than 16 years ago, Pein's attack had left wounds, both physically and mentally that would not completely go away. All anyone in the village has to do was look at all the new buildings built up in the past several months and one would be reminded of Pein's Shinra Tensei attack, which left a huge circular crater in the village's heart. Things were not ever the same since then.

Another sigh came from Naruto's mouth as he closed his eyes. There was no point in being angry over a dead man, but Konoha's Jinchuuriki certainly still felt some resentment over Pein's warp sense of reasoning for doing what he did. As far as the teen boy knew, it made no sense what so ever to destroy most of the village after finding out that he was not there. Pein could have just left, but no, he had to do a final attack that left many suffering. Thank Kami that deranged man no longer was among the living.

Naruto gave a tiny chuckle, his lips twisted in a wry grin, for he could not deny that Pein's attack had given him a new apartment, which was far better than the old one. Like any smart hunter, Pein had first went to his prey's apartment, and once he found out where it was located, the Akatsuki man had torn the entire apartment complex from top to bottom. Only after not finding his quarry did the wacko went on a rampage, tearing apart the village and killing every shinobi that confronted him.

Shaking his head at the irony, the young shinobi strolled toward his dresser to retrieve casual attire. He still at times missed his old apartment, given that one came with a nice walkway balcony where he could admire the view outdoors in the fresh air. This new apartment may be updated to the latest standards and stuff with everything new so he did not have to worry about maintenance for a while, but it was not the same, since there was no balcony. Least this top-floor living quarters was an additional floor higher in height compared to the old apartment complex.

With his clothes in hands, Naruto left his bedroom to the bathroom next door in the hallway. There he placed aside his clothes, stripped out of his pajamas and nightcap, and preceded to take a shower to clean his body and rinse away the last of any sleep in him.

As he scrubbed his form, his mind backtracked to the previous day and meeting Shion again, making him smiled at the memories. Naruto could not deny that it has been quite a reunion…

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Knowing Naruto was embarrassed enough, Shion kindly asked to speak to him alone, and getting the hint, Tsunade dismissed Team 7 but not before telling them they have a large amount of time-off for the duration of Priestess Shion's stay in Konoha. Bidding the priestess and her helpers a good evening, the Godiame led everyone out, leaving Naruto behind.

As Naruto began to follow his first lover toward the far-right bedroom, he glanced back to notice Sakura kept looking back at him as she was approaching the suite's exit. He has seen that look of concern on her face before, so he smiled reassuringly at his long-time teammate that he was going to be okay. He received a small nod and grin in return just before the pink-haired girl left, but for some reason, Sakura's grin did not felt right to him.

Dismissing the thought about his friend's grin for now, the blond chuunin turned back to Shion, who already strolled into the bedroom. He quickly followed her and closed the door after hearing words from Shinobu and Miyako that they would be left alone. Only then did Naruto face the beautiful priestess, who stood in front of a large picture window as she gazed at the scenery of Konoha while gently jiggling her infant son.

"You have a wonderful village, Naruto-kun," Shion began after a couple minutes of silence. "I have not ever been to Konoha before, so this is a first for me." Without needing to take light-violet eyes off the view, she sensed him moved to stand by her left side. "When you had written to me regarding what had happened to your village, I couldn't have imagined what you had described to me. Yet now I can see with my own eyes what had happened from the areas not yet recovered." Her lips formed a sad frown. "It's sad to actually see what your people had gone through."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, sad blue eyes set on the areas not yet started to rebuild. "After Pain's attack, we had to set up emergency shelters, hospitals, and a temporary command center to handle everything since the old Hokage Tower was destroyed. Not to mention on top of getting the village back on its feet, we still had the war against the Akatsuki to deal with as well as some problems regarding Oto. It was a very trying time for us."

Shion slightly grin before turning her head to gaze up at the young man standing next to her. "Yet your village managed to pull through okay." Her grin widened a bit, when Naruto locked his eyes with hers prior to warmly grin at what she had said.

"Well, it's going to take several years to recover from this," Naruto admitted, shrugging slightly. "We still have some people living in shelters, and not all the businesses have reopened. The Fire Daimyo can only supply a certain amount of money to help in the rebuilding effort, thus why even now our shinobi are doing many missions as possible to get much needed funds into the village's coffers."

Demon Country's head priestess chuckled. "As a hero, I'm guessing you will bring in much money, since no doubt you're being asked by many people for your services."

Naruto scratched the back of his head as he chuckled at her accurate guess. "Yeah, that's true. I don't like to be use like that, but if it helps the village to get that needed money, I'll do what I can. Least the Fire Daimyo was kind to double the mission payment for Team 7's services we provided to him in the past two months." Both chuckled again, feeling at ease with one another.

A thought brought up a concern for the blond shinobi. "Shion?" A moment after seeing he has her attention, he continued. "Did you and your attendants traveled from Demon Country alone? I'm not questioning Shinobu's abilities to protect you, but one guard does not seem enough to fight off any bandits or rogue shinobi."

Shion was touched that Naruto had asked the question. It showed his concern for her safety as well as for his son. "Before we left Demon Country, I'd sent a letter to Tsunade to ask for a Konoha shinobi escort team. You and your team were not available, so she'd sent Team Gai instead to accompanied us during the week travel to Konoha."

A relieved grin spread across Naruto's face. "Ah, that's good. You knew about Neji and Lee, so you were familiar with them."

"Hai," Shion confirmed with nod. "I also met their sensei again and their kunoichi teammate, Tenten. They were quite considerate for my safety, especially Haruki's." She giggled. "Gai and Lee at times kept sprouting off words about youth or something, much to their teammates' chagrin."

"Eh, eh," Naruto chuckled somewhat nervously at the vision of the two Green Beasts shouting out 'youthful' words around Haruki. He hoped the two didn't cause his son's ears to rupture. "Well, that's Gai-sensei and Lee for you. They always shout about the Fires of Youth."

"Least Neji and Tenten were normal," Shion smirked while rolling her eyes, which settled on her son, whose blue eyes were gazing back and forth between his parents. "Tenten stated they felt some sort of connection with Haruki, knowing he is the first child of a member of the Konoha 12." She raised her eyes to lock again with Naruto's. "If I recall correctly, that's the group of Konoha shinobi of your age group that you consider your closest friends."

"Yeah," Naruto acknowledged her with a grin just before looking down at his son fondly, which Shion copied. "We've become a tight-knit group that we've became like family to each other. Not only the twelve of us, but also our senseis as well. So Tenten is right that Haruki is special. Even I can feel it now, for our son is the first of the next generation to come out of our age group." His expression became a bit wistful. "It's a clear sign we're all growing up, Shion."

She felt it. That feeling welded up in her heart upon hearing those wise words. Shion couldn't agree more that they were growing up, and the past year has been a time of great change for not only her, but especially for him as well. She could tell he was still the same when it came to be a goof at times, who brought a smile to her being, but when it came to being serious, he has grown up a lot. She too knew she had changed, since she did away with being a spoiled brat and took her role as priestess seriously. Not only that, but since Haruki's birth, she felt she no longer was a child, given now she has the responsibilities of being a mother.

Oh, yes, Naruto was right that they were growing up alright, and she couldn't help but feel her heart clenched in love for him. Those feelings she had months ago were coming back almost full force, thus she did her best to not let those feelings overwhelm her.

Yet as the blonde young woman trained her vision on the father of her child, she spoke out the first thoughts that ran through her mind with a warm expression. "Look at you," Shion softly spoke with love that it made Naruto raised his head to look at her. "You've come so far since we've defeated Mouryou. The picture that you've sent to me of you wearing your red trench coat does not do you justice at all. You look truly like a Hokage, the hero you are. Now more than ever, I knew I made the right choice in choosing you to father my children."

Naruto warmly smiled at that, his heart clenching a bit in the process. "Thanks, Shion-chan. I have not ever regretted those three days I'd spent with you 11 months ago. They were worth every minute spent in time, and I will do so again this time as well with all my heart. I'm honored to be the father of your children, always."

For the first time in months, since the day he left her home, Shion felt her heart would burst. Her lips were in a broad smile, and it took all her will not to let happy tears flow out of her eyes. Damn this man for making her truly knew now that she could not ever love another man compared to him. Not ever.

Unable to form words due to her emotional state, the High Priestess of Demon Country did the next best thing to convey her feelings. She swiftly leaned up and locked her lips to his in a soulful kiss with all her love behind it.

He was momentarily shocked, but soon, the Hero of Konoha returned her kiss with his own, conveying his feelings through the kiss as much as he felt her doing the same toward him. He held her shoulders in his hands as they kissed with all their souls and hearts.

It was a reunion that felt right and just to the two lovers. Not since they last seen each other 11 months ago have their hearts felt so much love. It was like they have not departed at all and these 11 months did not exist.

Breaking apart with a warm smooch, Shion softly laughed at the joy she felt inside her, and seeing him warmly smiling down at her, she knew he felt the same. "Kami, I love you so much, Naruto-kun. I truly love you so much, that I know I can not ever have another man besides you. I just can't, no matter what."

Naruto could see in those shimmering violet pools of her eyes that she meant it, and it deeply warmed him to his core. "I love you as well, Shion-chan," he lovingly conveyed. "I know we can not ever be normally together due to our duties to our separate villages, but you will always have my love for the rest of my life. You have my word."

This time she was unable to prevent a few tears from rolling down her cheeks. Shion knew of his nindo, and he would always keep his promises when he gave someone his word. Her heart was so full knowing Naruto would love her for the rest of his life now, for he had made a promise of a lifetime that was almost similar to a marriage vow.

Feeling the need to change the subject before this lovable man made any more sweet sayings that would cause her more joy than her heart could handle, Shion hiccupped once before gazing at the Konoha scenery, where the setting sun has cast wonderful shades of orange and red upon the village. "To be honest, Naruto-kun, I didn't come to Konoha just to introduce Haruki to you and get you to fulfill your promise." Light-violet eyes momentarily saw he was paying attention before the twin orbs returned to watching the village landscape. "I want to know more about Konoha and its people."

Naruto blinked in surprise at her words. "You do?"

"Hai," replied Shion, her warm smile still in place. "This village and my village are now connected." Her head swiftly turned to gaze up those intriguing blue eyes. "We're a **family** now, Naruto-kun, and our son is a child of **two **villages. He will be raised not just by me, but by you as well. It will not be easy, but I know we can work out a way to together raise him despite we each live in separate villages."

Shion paused for a moment before commencing. "So knowing our children will occasionally be living here in Konoha with you, I want to know about much as I can about your village that is not written in the history books. Your cultures, clans, how you run things here, yet most importantly, I want to know your people – your friends and those close to you." She chuckled. "You said the Konoha 12 have become like a family, so I would very much want to know your family, Naruto-kun, especially now that we together have added a new **addition** to that family," she finished before looking down at the infant boy in her arms.

Naruto was speechless for a moment prior to chuckling in concurrence. "I have no problems in helping you to get to know Konoha better, Shion-chan. I particularly do not mind introducing our little guy to everyone I know. They have all been curious, since they found out I was going to be a father 11 months ago, and now that Haruki is here, I certainly want to introduce you and him to those close to me here in Konoha."

Giggling, Shion has a good hunch that Naruto would introduce their son as any father would, with pride and a somewhat inflated ego. She would not mind this as long as he did not go overboard. Knowing him, he might just be the type to play the 'Up the Baby' game of tossing his child in the air before catching the child. Maybe when Haruki was a couple years older, but as an infant, it was out of the question.

Seeing the small amused grin on her face as she shook her head, Naruto's curiosity was piqued. "What's so funny?" he asked with a grin.

The mother of his son lifted her head to emit an expression that was stern yet amused. "Do not even think of playing 'Up the Baby' with our son."

Instantly, Naruto brought up both hands in the surrender pose. "I will not even think of doing **that**, Shion-chan. You have my word," he concluded with a nervous chuckle. He knew better to ever provoke a mother's wrath.

"Good," Shion said in satisfaction, and with that said, she trained her eyes to once again look upon the view outside the picture window. The sun was already halfway setting below the horizon, thus the lights of the village came on, providing a gorgeous combination of the red/orange horizon to the foreground of the shining man-made lights.

"Beautiful," the blonde priestess whispered at the view.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed as he too looked at his home village, "but not as beautiful as the two people besides me now." With that said, he wrapped his right arm around Shion's waist without taking his eyes off the scenery.

Her heart once more near brimming with love, Shion rested her left cheek on his right shoulder, feeling content and safe with his arm around her and her son in her arms. Despite knowing that life would not ever be trouble-free, the long-haired blonde has a sense that this was going to be a good beginning of a new chapter in their lives.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Finishing his shower, Naruto amusingly shook his head. Even after many months apart, he was able to reconnect with Shion so easily that it just felt right. Not only that, but it felt good to be a father as well. Overall, the blond knew it just boiled down to the fact that he was delighted to have a **real** family to love on top of his friends and comrades.

After drying himself, the Konoha chuunin donned black slacks with orange leg strips, which went along the length of each pants leg, and his old gray t-shirt that has the Konoha Fire symbol on it before putting on his usual shinobi sandals. He then left the bathroom with his sleeping attire to return to the bedroom to make-up his bed and put away the sleepwear.

Knowing it was going to be a long day, Naruto took in a big breakfast in the kitchen of several cups of instant ramen, juice, and even some scrambled eggs. Before he had left Shion last night, he promised to return the following morning to take her and their son on a walk about the village. She wanted to get to know Konoha, and by Kami, he was going to do the best he could to introduce people, places, and other things around the village to her.

Once he ate and made sure he has everything he needed, a few weapons in his strapped leg pouch and his Gama-chan wallet, Naruto left his apartment and headed toward the hotel to begin his day.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Blinking light emerald eyes open, Haruno Sakura woke from sleep with a tiny grin on her face. It has been quite a good night rest for her. Not that she minded the beds she mostly slept at hotels and other places during missions, but nothing beats sleeping in your own bed at home. After two months, it was good to catch a full night's rest in her private soft bed for a change.

Yet the grin on her face faltered upon remembering the last time she saw a certain blonde shinobi of a teammate of hers. As much as she understood that Naruto has promised Priestess Shion to help her sired the next priestess, it did not mean the pinkette has to like the whole situation. She had been hoping that the blonde girl would give birth to a girl, so Naruto would be freed from his promise. However, Fate gave Shion a boy, thus Naruto has to once again 'mate' with the Demon Country's priestess.

After sitting up and drawing her knees up so she could rest her chin on the knees while wrapping her arms around her legs, Sakura frowned at the thought that her blonde knuckleheaded friend has already begun bedding the floozy priestess last night after she left the hotel. Eyes narrowed as her lips unconsciously made a snarl.

_"I just can't believe Naruto has to mate with Shion again! Why him? Why did she have to fell in love with him of all the men in the world? Would it make any difference who the guy is, if she is just looking to pass her bloodline to her daughter?"_

"SHA!" Inner Sakura screamed. "THAT'S RIGHT! THAT BLONDE BIMBO WANT TO KEEP NARUTO FOR HERSELF!"

Sakura closed her eyes on that thought Inner Sakura gave. Her whisker-faced friend had stated months ago that even though he loved Shion, a relationship couldn't be possible due to their duties and living in separate villages. Yet why did she have a sense of dread that Shion could, just as Inner Sakura stated, keep Naruto for herself and somehow prevent him from finding someone else to love?

"_No,"_ the pinkette mentally answered as she shook her head while opening her eyes. _"Naruto always gave his word, and he knows he is free to find another woman to love, thus Shion should not have any means to hold him bound. She would put herself in a bad light in Naruto's eyes if she ever tried to take back her promise to let Naruto go if he found another to love."_

Seeing the time on her nightstand's clock, Tsunade's apprentice stood up from the bed and prepared herself for the day. Her sannin sensei had told her yesterday to report to her to begin some further medical training, now that Team 7 would be in Konoha for some time. Sakura knew she still has some way to go until she was a medic-nin on Tsunade's level, thus why the Slug Sennin insisted on further training.

As she dressed, a new resolve came over the teenage kunoichi.

_"I'm going to keep a close eye on you, Shion. If you dare break your promise, I will do what I can to protect Naruto! You will not break his heart!"_

"IF SHE DOES, WE'LL SEND THAT FLOOZY TO THE MOON! SHANNARO!"

Mentally nodding in total agreement with her inner self, Sakura tied her hitai-ate on its usual spot as a hair band on her head, finishing dressing up, and seeing in the mirror she was ready, the only female of Team 7 clenched a fist in determination to keep her new pledge.

Leaving her bedroom, Haruno Sakura once more reminded herself why she became strong to begin with. Ever since that incident in the Forest of Death involving the Sound genins during that first Chuunin Exam, she had vowed to herself that she would not be left behind ever again as her teammates grew stronger. Ever since Sasuke left the village, she had vowed to not be a burden and become a great asset to her teammates, especially to Naruto, who had made her a promise to bring Sasuke back. Ever since she had learned about Orochimaru's plans to use Sasuke's body to stay immortal, she had vowed to truly rescue him and not just bring him back to Konoha. Ever since Naruto told her of him being the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and why the Akatsuki was after him, she had sworn to protect him with all her strength. Protecting those she cared about was why she has become strong.

Now she has made a new vow regarding the most important man in her life next to her father, and by Kami, Sakura sworn she was going to keep it!

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

End of Chapter 3

A/Ns:

1) Okay now. First thing I like to tell everyone is that I'd changed my mind when it comes to the arrangement of names. I went back to the previous two chapters and changed the names to fit the Japanese way – family name first and personal name last. I'd noticed a large number of great fics, like "Team 8," does it this way. Besides, the Naruto world is based on the Japanese culture, not American, thus it made sense to tell the names this way.

Speaking of the name arrangement, if anyone ever read my _Kim Possible_ fic "A Bond of Honor," I kept to the American name arrangement thus the Japanese characters in that fic have their personal name mentioned first and their family name mentioned last. Since KP is based on American culture and the story itself is based in America, well, it makes sense to keep the names that way away.

So I think I learned a lesson here. From now on, all my Naruto fics will have the Japanese name arrangement. :)

2) Another minor thing I changed is Naruto's shinobi attire. Since Chapter 430 came out, I thought Naruto looked cool in that trench coat. So I added the coat in the last chapter. As this chapter mentioned, his coat and Toad Sennin look makes the girls go wild, thus why the Uzumaki Naruto Fangirls Club have the hots for him. XD

3) To be honest, despite that Pein destroyed a good portion of Konoha, it made sense he would have gone to Naruto's apartment complex first before ransacking the village for his target. Chapter 430 confirmed that the Hokage Tower was destroyed along with many other places, yet even if Pain didn't left a crater in the middle of Konoha, Naruto's apartment building would still have been destroyed as I mentioned why it would be.

So thus why I've given Naruto a new apartment in this chapter. :)

4) I'm quite aware that in the anime fillers, the name for all the Rookie 9 + Team Gai – Sasuke is the Konoha 11. Yet after many months after joining Team 7, I think Sai would be part of the gang. It's why by the time of this fic, Sai is now considered part of the group and thus why they are now known as the Konoha 12. :)

5) Despite that "WIT II" has been listed as a drama and romance, this fic also has some comedy and family moments in the story. There are only two slots for the genre listings, thus I can only list the story under two genre categories.

I'm trying to get close as I can to how the Naruto series shows itself. The series has a great combination of drama, action/adventure, and comedy elements. Some episodes would be total comedy, others a combination of comedy and drama, and some would be total drama, etc.

So this is what I'm aiming for this fic. There will be times where a chapter would be drama, other times would have some comedy elements, and of course, there would be romantic elements, as this chapter shown. It brings a good sense of balance to the story IMO. :)

6) Last, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. Not only does it contains some nice NaruShion fluff but also the promises of the three main characters. Naruto and Shion have promised to love each other for the rest of their lives, even though they can not ever be together like any normal couple. And Sakura vows to keep an eye on Shion and protect Naruto. How will this drama unfold? Well, we'll see as the story progresses. ;)


	4. Chapter 4: Tales at the Academy

Disclaimer: All Naruto characters are the copyright of Masashi Kishimoto. I'm just borrowing them to write up a story with no intention of making any money. This is for fun. That's all. :) No copying of my story is allowed. That's stealing if anyone copies my story into his/her own story. Write your own story without taking others' works! (angry glare)

Story rating: T (PG-13)(for minor sexual themes)  
Written: November 2008 - present

Summary: Shion visits Konoha to request Naruto to 'help' her again, but not without changes and consequences. Spoilers. NaruShion, NaruSaku, Naru?.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Whatever It Takes II  
Chapter 4 – Tales at the Academy  
By JuPMod (aka JPMod)

Walking through the front doors of the hotel, Konoha's newest Toad Sennin has a grin on his face, feeling the world was going right. Ever since he had made a big difference in bringing down the Akatsuki and defeated the remaining forces of Oto, a great percentage of Konoha's population had come to have high esteem for him, not just as a shinobi but also a person. It had warmed him heart to had learned that most of the Konoha shinobi respected him even before Pein's invasion, thus why they all hadn't bother to tell Pein anything when had been asked where Naruto was, even if telling the truth would have spared Konoha.

So after so long, it truly felt good to finally earned most of the population's approval. Oh, there were still a very few people who still saw him as the Kyuubi, but as far as Naruto was concern, he paid them no attention.

Looking around the large lobby, the teenage shinobi gazed at the small comfortable lounge, which was situated to the left of the front registration desk that was on the lobby's left side, and spotted the small group he was looking for. Shion had said they would meet him in the lobby, and now he saw them, Naruto made way toward his guests.

"Shion-chan!" he called out as he entered the lounge and headed toward the teenage priestess, who sat in cushioned lounge chair. His blue eyes easily made out Shinobu in a similar chair to Shion's right and Miyako to Shinobu's right, and both were positioned in a half-circle alignment with their young mistress.

Upon hearing Naruto's voice, Shion had stopped talking with her personal guard and turned to face her approaching love. A warm grin came to her face as she rose with an occupied baby sling secured over her right shoulder. "Morning, Naruto-kun," she greeted. She didn't need her eyes to know Shinobu and Miyako has also risen from their seats. It was a common curtsey that most would do anyway.

Making a quick observation of the three, Naruto noticed that with the exception of Miyako, their outfits were different from yesterday.

Shion's outfit reminded Naruto of the getup she wore to the Sealing Shrine 11 months ago. With her hair in a braid with forehead and side-burn bangs freed, the beautiful blonde currently was wearing a red, tied-down kahaki pants that ended just past the knees; a white, midriff-bearing halter-top which exposed a bit of cleavage; peach forearm covers; and simple sandals.

Shinobu donned a simple long-sleeved shirt over black slacks with his usual shinobi sandals, yet the Konoha teen spotted the leg-strapped and waist pouches, which no doubt contained kunai, shuriken, and other things.

"Morning, Shion-chan," Naruto grinned in return as he stopped in front of her before greeting the other two. "Morning, Miyako, Shinobu."

"Good morning, Naruto-sama," Miyako bowed her head with a grin. Shinobu simply did the same thing without bowing his head and adding the suffix.

The Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi frowned a bit at the older woman. "Did I tell you last night before I left that you don't have to call me by the Sama suffix? I'm not your superior, Miyako."

"It is true that you are not my direct superior," the strawberry-blonde conceded the point, "yet you are Shion-sama's significant other, thus you are in some ways my superior." She chuckled upon seeing him frown some more. "Besides, from what Shion-sama told me, you are aiming to become Hokage someday, correct?" Seeing Naruto nodded an affirmative, her grin widened some more. "Then as a leader, you better get use to people calling you by the Sama suffix… Naruto-sama." She and Shion softly laughed as Naruto groaned at being outwitted.

Shinobu chuckled at the younger man's expression. "As Miyako said, Naruto, you better get used to it. I don't mind dropping the suffix for you, for you're a fellow warrior and protector."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto responded with a tiny reluctant grin as he scratched his head. "Many children in the village are calling me that now, just it's somewhat weird to hear it coming from people older than me. Yet you're right," he lowered his hand, "that I better get used to it."

Shion, warmly grinning, sighed at what he said. She was raised almost like royalty given her status, thus she was used to such formalities all the time. Naruto, she was reminded just now, grew-up as a commoner, thus he was not ever used to being formal or having people being proper toward him. The priestess mentally giggled at the memory of Naruto being quite informal when he had first introduced himself to her 11 months ago. Not even being elbowed by his pink-haired female teammate deterred him from continuing being rude.

Coming out of her brief visit down Memory Lane, Shion took a look down at Haruki, who was gazing up at her, before returning her sight on her son's father. "Do you want to hold him again, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto, at first, blinked, being caught off guard, but he immediately warmly grinned and gave a nod of consent. "You know I don't mind holding him, Shion-chan." With that said, he reached over to pick up his son out of the baby sling to hold the infant in his arms.

Last night, before he had left Shion's hotel room, he had asked whether he could hold Haruki. It had been somewhat awkward at first, given he had not ever held a baby before, but after being given some pointers from Shion and Miyako, he had been holding his son properly and at ease. He had found it was simple to hold a baby, and to his pleasant surprise, he had come to enjoy the physical connection between him and his son.

As he looked down onto Haruki's small face, Naruto couldn't help but to be drawn into those piercing blue eyes that were looking up right into his own same colored eyes. The hair was fine and smooth and a shade darker than Shion's platinum blonde. It was obvious that the kid had taken physical traits from both parents, making the father felt proud that he was a part in bringing this little miracle into the living world.

"You're quite a cute little guy, right?" Naruto beamed down at his son. "You're going to grow-up to be tall and attractive, just like your Otousan, right?" he added while gently tickling the infant's shirted stomach, producing a baby squeal of laughter. "Yeah! You're going to be a great ninja! Dattebayo!" Shion and Miyako softly laughed at the silly display Naruto was making, while Shinobu grinned.

Laughter dying off, the young priestess shook her head, light-violet eyes twinkling. "He's only two months old, Naruto-kun. Don't you think it's **way** too early to tell what he'll be when he grows-up?"

Naruto smiled widely into his trademark foxy expression as he chuckled. "Haruki can become anything he wants to be, Shion-chan. Yet I have a hunch he'll be taking after his father more than his mother."

Shion's eyes narrowed as she smirked. "Don't count on it, Future Hokage. We'll see when our son grows older to how much of each of us he'll be taking after." Naruto chuckled at that.

Shaking his head slightly at the display of these two adolescents behaving sort-of like a married couple, Shinobu spoke what was on the forefront of his mind. "So, where are we going today, Naruto? Shion-sama has waited for the past several days for you to return to venture out. She has not seen anything of Konoha yet."

"Really?" blinked Naruto before looking at the woman he loved. "You waited for me?"

The Priestess of Demon Country nodded sheepishly, her cheeks turned a bit shade of pink. "I really didn't feel like taking on the sites alone," she grinned. "Tsunade had offered someone to be a guide, but I said I want to wait for you to be our guide. As I said, Naruto-kun, I want to know your village, and that includes the people you know. Only you can do this for me, and no one else."

Naruto couldn't help but smile with warmth and pride. Shion has placed her deepest trust with him, and knowing how much she loved him, it shouldn't have come as a revelation to him. Yet it still was a touching gesture nevertheless on her part to wait for him to return to Konoha first, for she had wanted him to be her Konoha guide.

"Thanks, Shion-chan," replied Naruto with a grin, which she matched. After a minute of staring at each other's eyes, the young father gestured to the baby sling that Shion still has. "I'll carry Haruki." Understanding what he meant, the young mother handed over the sling, which quickly went around Naruto's right shoulder before he gently placed the baby boy into the clothed sling.

With his son secured, Naruto made a simple signal with his left hand to follow him. He began talking as Shion strolled on his right side with Miyako, who has shouldered the carrying-on pack full of baby stuff, just behind and Shinobu picking up the rear. "There are not many places I can show you. Other than the Hokage Monument, the new Hokage Tower, and Chuunin Exam stadium, Konoha is not much of a tourist place." His face became a thoughtful one. "Yet I can introduce first to you someone special to me. He was one of the first people to ever acknowledge me as a person, and I very much want him to meet you, Shion-chan, both you and Haruki."

Intrigued to who this special person was, the three Demon Country citizens followed their guide out of the hotel toward whatever destination they were heading now.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Chaos ruled. Every shinobi knew this, for being a shinobi meant being prepare for the unexpected, and this obvious was represented by the calamity of Chaos bringing disorder to order.

So it was not uncommon for a particular group of Konoha shinobi to experience Chaos doing its thing everyday in their line of work. Screams and grunts could be heard. The loud voices of talking between individuals were everywhere. The occasional lazy bum was sleeping on the job. Total madness.

"QUIET!" a booming voice was heard, causing immediate silence to come about and even woke the lazy bum.

Chaos may rule, but Chaos certainly has not ever met Umino Iruka, Chuunin Head Instructor of the Konoha Ninja Academy. With a single thunderous command, the room full of second-year students paid attention to their sensei, who walked through the bottom door of the amphitheater-style classroom, his eyes scanning every youngster with precision to spot the signs of mischief. After many years as an academy teacher, Chaos has been mostly curbed to a minimum in Iruka's domain.

A loud belch was heard; making everyone eyed an Akimichi boy eating a bag of chips in the middle of the room. Letting out a puff of air, Iruka sighed. Well, Chaos certainly maybe curbed, but that didn't meant Fate wouldn't throw in a ringer or two occasionally.

"Okay, now," the scar-faced man began. "We'll be going over your homework reading assignment on the Hokages and their important affects they have on Konoha history." A few groans, moans, and whiny complaints were heard from some of the boys, prompting Iruka to raise an eyebrow. "You may not like it, but knowing some of your history will make you understand the significance of being a shinobi. Being a shinobi is not just fighting, you know."

After a few more reluctant moans and groans were heard, Iruka commenced with the history lesson as he went through a question-and-answer session with his students regarding each Hokage, starting with the First. By the time he started talking about the Fourth Hokage, already a couple of the boys were asleep on their desks.

"Can anyone of you tell me a historical event that involved the Yondaime?" Iruka asked the classroom.

A blond girl raised her hand before speaking after being noticed by Iruka. "I know the Yondaime single-handedly won the Third Great War for Konoha against Iwa. He used a great jutsu that made him super fast."

"That's right," Iruka grinned to praise the girl, who grinned back with pride. "The technique he used is known as the Hiraishin no Jutsu. Not only he had invented the technique, but he is also the only one to ever have used it. No one has ever yet able to duplicate it."

After going through a minute or two talking more about the Fourth Hokage's role in defeating Iwa, the pony-tailed man gestured with both his hands to the classroom. "Any other important events the Yondaime were involved?"

A boy spoke out without raising his hand. "Well, he did seal the Kyuubi, right? The Godiame announced it months ago."

Iruka nodded in affirmative, yet he knew quite personally what was to follow. "That's right." He chuckled with a knowing grin. "I'm sure you all know who he sealed the Kyuubi into, right?"

"That would be me!" a male voice called out suddenly, making everyone in the classroom quickly swiveled their heads toward the bottom entrance, where a tall, blond, young man stood with whisker marks on his cheeks. "Uzumaki Naruto!" With that said, he strolled into the room toward Iruka, followed by three people the entire room have not seen before.

"Naruto-sama!" a couple of girls, sitting next to each other, crowed with hearts in their eyes. Some of the nearby boys rolled their eyes at hearing the two girls acting like a pair of love struck fans, but there were no denials that it was exciting to see one of Konoha's heroes in person.

For the three Demon Country people, it was an amazing and somewhat amusing sight to see a whole classroom of pre-teens seemed to be idolizing Naruto, but out of the three, none has more pride and heart at the display than Shion.

Months ago after the Akatsuki and Oto Wars, Naruto had told her through one of his letters that he had insisted to Tsuande that it was time to lift the ban regarding the knowledge of him being the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. Agreeing, the Godiame had announced to the village the truth. With the ban lifted, those few, who still hated Naruto, were freed to spew forth their anger, trying to ignite anyone to join them against Naruto. Yet the opposite had occurred, for a great deal of the younger generations held no ill will toward their newest hero. Matter of fact, hearing Naruto was the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi made the blond even more fascinated in the younger generations' eyes.

Now Shion was seeing it for real, instead of imagining it. These young students truly did idolize Naruto, and she couldn't help but feel her heart going out to her love. It had broken her heart when he had told her 11 months ago his secret burden of carrying the Kyuubi inside him. His confession and story of his lonesome childhood had cemented her love for him quite strongly, knowing he truly did understand what it meant to be alone, like she did. Yet her heart was currently swelling, now that she could see those dark clouds have been lifted off his shoulders. Naruto, after so many years of being an outcast, was now fully accepted by his village with pride. Knowing this was almost enough to bring Shion on the brink of releasing happy tears.

Yet for the Priestess of Demon Country, she was more interest in meeting Naruto's special people, especially those who made up the Konoha 12. She had already met Sakura, Neji, Lee, and Tenten, and they had showed no qualms about Naruto being a Jinchuuriki. According to Naruto's letters, after the announcement of him being the jailer of the Kyuubi, some of the Konoha 12 had been surprised and even held a bit of fear, but they all had accepted him as **who **he was, not **what** he was. It had warmed Naruto's spirits that his friends had accepted him fully, and in turn, it had warmed hers as well.

"Naruto!" Iruka greeted his most favorite student as the blond approached. Oh, he would not ever admit it to anyone outright, since, as a teacher, he did not like to play favoritism. Yet those, who knew the long-time Academy sensei, knew Naruto would always be Iruka's favorite.

"It has been a long two months, since I last saw you, Iruka-sensei," Naruto returned the welcome as he finally stood in front of the Academy instructor. "I hope you don't mind I interrupting your class, Iruka-sensei, but I like very much to introduce you to some people."

Before Iruka could answer, a boy spoke out from the top of the classroom. "We certainly do not mind," he said cheekily, referring to the entire class. "Better to meet you, Naruto-sama, than being bored hearing a history lecture."

A vein popped on Iruka's forehead with a ticking eye as he narrow-eyed the joker, while Naruto sweatdropped and chuckled, some of the students snickered, and Shion, Miyako, and Shinobu simply sweatdropped. "Knowing your history is important, brat!" the scar-faced chuunin pointed to the sly-grinning boy. "Mark my words!"

Feeling the need to get his former sensei back on track, Naruto cleared his throat, prompting Iruka to look back on his former student. It was only then did the pineapple-headed chuunin notice the bundle the blond was holding. "Naruto, is this…" he trailed off in awe, gazing down into a small face with the same blue eyes as the teenager before him.

"Yeah," Naruto confessed proudly. "I like you to meet my son, Uzumaki Haruki. Shion-chan named him after she gave birth to him born two months ago." The young father turned his head to look at his son's mother, who came forward, causing the Academy teacher to look as the beautiful blonde woman standing next to Naruto. "Iruka-sensei, I want you to meet Shion, Priestess of Demon Country." He smiled at his love. "Shion-chan, this is Umino Iruka, my Academy sensei, and one of a few that first acknowledged me as a person when I was younger."

Iruka gave a friendly and warm smile at the young woman, who done the same in return. He had months ago been shown a picture of a pregnant Shion by Naruto, so he knew immediately who she was before Naruto introduced her just now. Besides, Iruka was the first to been told by the blond that he was going to be a father, so it really was not much of a surprise to finally able to meet Naruto's child. "Shion-sama," he began, "it's an honor to meet your acquaintance. Naruto have told me much about you."

Shion bowed her head. "And it's an honor to meet you as well, Iruka-san. Naruto-kun has nothing but glowing praise for you in his letters he has written to me over the past 11 months. It's great to finally meet the man who meant so much to Naruto during a great time of change for him."

The older man didn't have to be a mind reader to know what she was referring. That night of Mizuki's betrayal was certainly one to remember for both he and Naruto. He had no idea that Naruto had been listening to the conversation between Mizuki and him, but only after Naruto took care of Mizuki did Iruka was told by his favorite student how much that speech of acknowledgment had moved the blond enough to prompt him to fight. They had been close ever since.

Yet before Iruka could utter a word to continue the conversation with the priestess, a small girlish squeal was heard. "Oh, my Kami!" came from one of the two Naruto fangirls. "That's Shion-sama of Demon Country, Naruto-sama's wife just as mom told me!" The rest of the young students burst with chatter with some supporting the girl, while others were flat out denying it.

"Whoa, whoa!" Naruto called out to bring silence to the room, before he nervously chuckled. He glanced at Shion, who wore an amused grin with slight tinted pink cheeks, and then he turned back to his young audience. "Sorry, but Shion-chan and I are not married." A few aww's of disappointment were heard along with a few smug retorts from some boys, who knew the truth anyway. "We do though love each other very much." This caused the two fangirls to squeal again, making Naruto winced for a moment. "She wanted to have a child, so since I gave her my word, I had helped her in that." His body twisted slight to show the entire class the baby in his arms. "As you can see, she and I are parents now." This time a number of girls gave some happy aww's at the notion of their hero and the priestess were parents now.

The blond girl, who had answered Iruka's earlier history question, raised her hand before speaking. "Shion-sama, is it true that you and Naruto-sama fell in love on first sight?" She smiled with dreamy eyes. "That's so romantic!"

Snickering, as he looked at his former student, who was sheepishly chuckling while looking at his son's mother, Iruka had known about the real story from Naruto, and seeing Shion shaking her head with a gentle, chastening grin aimed at the blonde girl, the Academy teacher knew what the priestess was going to say. "To be honest, Naruto-kun and my first meeting didn't start off like that at all. When I first met him, I thought he was rude and quite obnoxious."

Naruto snorted a laugh. "Well, I thought you were cold, aloof, and spoiled." Shion's gentle chuckles showed she took what he had said in stride, for it was the truth after all.

Seeing the baffled looks on his young students' faces, especially the disappointed one from the blond girl, Iruka spoke out before anyone else could. "Naruto, Shion-sama, since you were both there during the Mouryou War, you can tell the class exactly what had happened during your mission, from when you met to the time you defeated Mouryou. Since my class is currently covering history, I'm sure they will want to hear from your perspectives about the war."

Eager nods and voices of approvals rang out from the Academy students, making Naruto grinned as he turned his head toward Shion. "You don't mind we tell them our story, Shion-chan?"

Shion shook her head, matching his expression. "Not at all." With that said, she began the tale of how she and Naruto met and the mission to the Sealing Shrine that had followed.

For a better part of an hour, the pair told their story to their attentive audience. They almost included everything from their memorable first meeting to the final battle against Mouryou. Both even told, in respect and honor, about Taruho and how he had sacrificed his life so Shion could live to reach the Sealing Shrine. By the time they had reached the end of the tale, some of the girls had starry-eyes, which showed no doubts that they thought it must have been quite romantic for Shion to have fallen for Naruto by the end of the war.

Yet for Naruto and Shion, they definitely kept to themselves what had happened **after** Mouryou was defeated. They simply told the pre-teens that they had fallen in love after the war, no more than that. There was no need to give the details to how their 'first time' came to being. Nope, that part of their lives they definitely wanted to remain **private**.

As Shion was finishing off the story, Konoha's Jinchuuriki sniffed and scrunched up his nose. There was a foul smell coming from somewhere. After gazing down at Haruki, who began crying, the blond sniffed again and immediately discovered the origin of the stench. "Uh, Shion-chan?" he said, gaining everyone's attention from the crying baby. "I think Haruki needs to go to bathroom." Only after hearing what he just mentioned did all nearby the teenage boy smelled what he meant and scrunched up their noses.

"Ewww!" the smart-assed boy at the back row pointed at the small infant. "The baby pooped!"

"Well, duh!" the blonde girl replied, looking back sarcastically at the joker of the class. "All babies poop all the time! I know given I remember how many times a day my parents have to change the diapers off my baby brother and then later my baby sister."

Another boy, at the bottom of the classroom in front of the blonde girl, snorted. "Babies do not poop all the time. Maybe a few times a day at most. If they poop **all** the time, I doubt any parent will find a moments rest."

The blond girl trained her ire at the boy sitting in front and just below her. "I hate you and your nitpicking corrections. I know that, Mr. Know-It-All. Just because our clans are friends with each other does not mean we are." Finished, she huffed at him and turned her head away.

The boy rolled his eyes and sighed. "My cousin was right. Girls are troublesome."

Feeling a need to change the subject before the conversations from the students really get weird, Iruka glanced at the wall clock and sighed in relief. "Listen up!" he shouted, gaining everyone's attention. "It's time for you to go outside for your shuriken-and-kunai throwing session with Ringo-sensei and then lunch." Several cheers were heard among the youngsters. "After lunch, we'll be continuing our history review, and I'm going to give you a small pop-quiz at the end." The cheers were replaced by moans and groans, which brought a small amount of satisfaction to Iruka's being that he could make them suffer a bit for everything they done to him. "That's all. Dismissed!"

The room immediately started vacating of students, with most of the boys running out the doors first followed casually by the rest. Within a span of five minutes, the room was empty except for the three adults, two teenagers, and one infant.

"Come on," Iruka grinned assuredly, "we'll go to my office where you can change Haruki's diaper." He only took a few steps toward the exit when he paused and blinked at Shion's two attendants, before a tiny uneasy grin came to his face. "And you are…"

Naruto groaned and mentally slapped himself. "I'm sorry, Iruka-sensei. I forgot to introduce you to them." He grinned at the two Demon Country adults as he introduced them to the Academy teacher. The blond again apologized for not remembering, but Iruka, Shinobu, and Miyako told him not to worry, for they understood that the interaction after Shion's introduction just made everyone forgetful.

With the final introductions out of the way, the Head of the Konoha Ninja Academy led his guests out of the classroom, down one flight of stairs to the first floor, and into a small office before sliding the door shut.

It was a nice little office with a view of the grass, trees, and tall wall that surrounded the Academy. Yet instead of seeing one desk, there were two, facing the walls on opposite sides of the room from each other. There was a cubical partition separating the two desks into two separate small offices. The one on the left showed the clutter of paper, text books, scrolls, and several filing cabinets, and it was clear that it was Iruka's office, especially with the photos on the thumb-tack board on the wall with one showing a young Naruto and Iruka smiling together at the camera. The one on the right, however, was clean and neat with papers, books, and scrolls all organized. Yet what caught the four guests' attention was that next to the desk was a baby-changing table with baby changing stuff on the table and other baby stuff on the floor. There was also a small crib as well. It was clear whoever was sharing Iruka's office have an infant child to attend, unless all this stuff was for someone not related to whomever Iruka's office partner was.

Knowing what was on their minds given where they were looking; the scar-faced chuunin verified what they were thinking. "Close to a month ago, one of the village's kunoichi had given birth, and she, after 9 months of being pregnant, was eager to return to duty. She has not been clear to do any missions, but the Godiame, knowing I could use a hand here at the Academy, placed her as a temporary instructor. The job enables her to adjust her life to handle being a mother as well as give her time to get herself physically back into active-duty readiness to do missions."

"That's good to hear, Iruka-san," Miyako said as she grabbed Naruto's right arm and guided him to the baby-changing table, "but right now, Haruki needs to be change."

With a towel already on the table, Naruto did not waste time as he raised his crying son out of the sling and placed him onto the towel. "Okay, tell me what I need to do, Shion-chan, Miyako-neechan," he said, while Miyako was removing the necessary items from the carrying bag. Both women blinked at first but immediately figured out that Naruto wanted to learn in order to do this again in the future. He was taking his role as a father quite seriously.

Miyako prepared the needed articles on the table, and with her on Naruto's left and Shion on his right, the Demon Country medic began coaching the young father what to do. Under the guidance of the two women, the blond chuunin surely and steadily changed his son's diaper. He was a tad nervous as well as a bit queasy over the human mess and stench on the diaper, but, like he was on a mission, Naruto pulled through and did what his female instructors instructed.

Shinobu and Iruka watched everything from the sides, amused and impressed. They were amused at Naruto going through the messy process of changing a diaper. The look on the teen boy's face was priceless at times. Yet they were impressed the young father carried on through with determination to get the job done. It displayed the strength Naruto no doubt has in determining to be a parent.

It had taken several minutes, a few more than normal due to this being his first time changing a diaper, yet Naruto was finally done. He stood before his now-smiling son, a bit of a mess with baby powder on his hands and face. Of course, now that he knew how to do it, the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki vowed the next time would not be so chaotic.

"Congratulations, Naruto," Iruka teased, "you're now a first-rate diaper changer." Shinobu snickered.

"Very funny, Iruka-sensei," Naruto mock whined yet his voice was mirthful, as he watched Shion took her son into her arms. "What about you?" he locked his eyes with his former-teacher at the same time Miyako placed the dirty diaper in a bag and sealed it within a scroll. "Have you ever changed a diaper?" he challenged with a smirk.

"Matter of fact, I did." This caused Naruto to raise his eyebrows in surprise. Iruka gestured to the diaper-changing table. "My colleague occasionally brings her son to work, but only if she truly can't find anyone to look after the child. I think by now she might have finally arranged for daycare at a daycare center." He chuckled. "Those few days she did bring her son in were something. I swear her class was far more cooperative with the infant in the classroom than without him, and yet her class listens to her anyway with or without her son's presence in the room."

Shion grinned up at the older man as she sat onto the desk's chair, jiggling Haruki. "Your colleague sounds like she is a great teacher, if she holds her students' attention well."

Iruka grinned in agreement. "She does. She is quite good, that I even suggested that she can work here full-time, if she wants." The man turned a smirking expression on his ex-student. "I'm sure if she had been teaching at the Academy several years ago, she would have even held Naruto's attention, which was quite lacking under my supervision."

Naruto, cleaning his hands and face with a spar towel found on the side, sheepishly chuckled as the two women stared at him with raised eyebrows while Shinobu snickered. "Aw, come on, Iruka-sensei. I was not that bad."

Seeing Shion and her attendants have curious expressions, Iruka knew this was going to be fun ribbing Naruto in front of his son's mother. "Oh, you were quite bad, Naruto, especially with all the pranks you pulled on the village."

So begun Iruka's tales of Naruto the Most Unpridictable Notorious Prankster of Konoha. The Academy teacher didn't left any story untold, from the pranks the blond boy had pulled on him to the ones done on the village, like the cherry bombs in the public restrooms' toilets. It was fun watching Naruto get red-faced as Shion amusedly took in the fact that her lover has been quite a joker at the time. Yet Iruka mentally gave Naruto credit in taking the ribbing in stride, especially knowing Shion was enjoying the tales instead of berating him.

"You didn't!" Shion giggled at her beloved man, who was leaning against the desk right next to her.

"Yeah, I did," Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a bashful grin. "Painting the Hokage Monument was the best prank I pulled just before I'd graduated. I was chased by many ANBU, chuunin, and jounin around the village. No one was able to capture me, until Iruka-sensei did. He made me wash off the paint, but he had promised a meal at Ichiraku Ramen's, if I finish." A fond chuckle escaped the blond's lips. "I worked so fast to get the paint off in order to get that free ramen meal."

While Shion and Miyako softly laughed at imagining a 12-year-old Naruto washing the huge stone faces, Shinobu chuckled and pointed to the younger man. "You must have been really good in evasive tactics if you eluded so many highly-trained shinobi, Naruto. I'm surprised you, with hardly any ninja skills, managed such a feat." Naruto's response was to simply grin his foxy smile as he rubbed his head some more.

The door to the office slid open on its tracks, alerting the room's occupants to the newcomer. For the three Demon Country people, the raven-haired woman, who was standing in the doorframe looking at them, was a stranger to them, but for Iruka and Naruto, the woman was well known to them, for she was considered one of the most stunning kunoichi in the village, especially with those captivated red eyes of hers.

"Kurenai-sensei!" Naruto called out in delighted surprise in seeing the beautiful and smart jounin-sensei, who trained one of the three teams of his graduation class, the Rookie 9.

"Naruto?" the slim woman blinked at first, before a welcoming grin appeared on her face. "I see you're back from your mission with the Fire Daimyo. Visiting Iruka, I presume?"

Naruto smiled warmly back at her. Unless one happened to be at the receiving end of her ire, who wouldn't be affected by Yuuhi Kurenai's warm personality? "Yeah, I am. So what are you doing here, Kurenai-sensei?"

The beautiful kunoichi didn't miss a beat. "I work here, Naruto," she replied so simply.

"Eh?" Naruto was confused. "You work here?" Then it dawned at him. "Wait a minute!" he said before pointing to Iruka. "The kunoichi you mentioned before was Kurenai-sensei?"

Iruka nodded with an amused expression. He didn't intend to trick the younger man by not mentioning **who** he was referring before, but it was funny nevertheless he got one over the teenager, who was known then for his prankster ways. "Well, I might not have mentioned Kurenai by name, but yes, she is our new instructor. Besides, did you notice Kurenai is no longer pregnant?"

Now that was mentioned, Naruto looked at Kurenai again and saw immediately that she was indeed not swollen in the front with pregnancy. He also took in her outfit of a long-sleeved, red yukata top, which showed some cleavage, over black slacks and high-heeled kunoichi sandals. With her hitai-ate on her forehead, she looked exactly like she was before she became pregnant, thus unless one actually knew her, one couldn't even tell if she had ever been an expecting mother.

Bashfully chuckling, Naruto once again rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, I didn't notice."

An amused Kurenai grinned reassuringly at the young chuunin. "That's okay," she said, before her expression became a soft chastening one. "Care to introduce me to our guests?" Stepping into the room and closing the door behind her, the Genjutsu specialist had a good hunch whom was the sitting blonde girl holding the infant, for she did recall seeing a color photo Naruto had shown her months ago.

With his usual, casual grin, the blond Hokage-wannabe introduced Kurenai first to Shion, Miyako, and Shinobu, and then did the same in reverse to the jounin kunoichi, who warmly greeted each of the Demon Country citizens, especially Shion, now that she knew the blonde girl was indeed the Demon Country priestess Naruto has been intimated 11 months ago. Yet after the two mothers exchanged polite and kind words, red eyes focused on the baby boy in the priestess's arms.

Naruto proudly did the final introduction as Kurenai stepped forward to bend down closer to examine the little tyke. "This is our son, Kurenai-sensei. His name is Uzumaki Haruki."

"His name suits him," Kurenai complimented with a grin. "With his hair a mix of both parents and having his father's eyes, he definitely looks like he radiates like the sun." She stood straight again to eye the teenage parents. "Congratulations, both of you."

"Thanks, Kurenai-sensei," Naruto beamed, while Shion nodded her gratitude. "What about you? Iruka-sensei told me you gave birth to a boy."

The beautiful kunoichi proudly smiled. "Yes, I did. His name is Sarutobi Hajime. He currently is being watch by Asuma's sister-in-law, who is Konohamaru's mother. I don't have any photos here, but I can tell you that he has black hair and red eyes just like mine. When you have a chance, Naruto, you're welcome to stop by my home to meet him. Everyone in the Konoha 12 has already met him, except for you, Sakura, and Sai."

"Will do, Kurenai-sensei," promised Naruto with a thankful nod. He then gazed down at his son just prior to making strange faces at the watchful boy. The results were small delightful sounds of childish laughter.

Kurenai smiled reflectively at the young father's antics. Naruto still viewed things in childlike wonder at times. In the past 10 months or so since Asuma's death, the teenage boy has matured as a shinobi, growing in strength & power and knowledge & wisdom. Such a combination of maturity and childlike humor & wonder would not only make him a good father in the long run, but also a fine Hokage.

Turning her head to gaze at her fellow Academy teacher, the seasoned kunoichi saw Iruka's expression was reflective with a small grin as he observed Naruto making strange faces at Haruki. Kurenai reasoned that he must be thinking along the same lines as she regarding the young man before them.

Catching her looking at him, Iruka grinned at her. "So what are you doing her, Kurenai?"

"It's lunch-time, Iruka," Kurenai slightly smirked at him. "Didn't you notice the time?"

Glancing at the small clock on Kurenai's desk, the Acedemy Head realized she was right, for it was several minutes past 12-noon. "Wow, I certainly was not aware of the time." He chuckled. "I guess I was so focus on telling the stories of all the pranks Naruto had pulled that time must have flown by, eh?"

Hearing that it was lunch-time, Naruto stopped making faces and perked up. "How about we go to Ichiraku's Ramen?"

Both teachers inwardly chuckled at the suggestion, for they were not surprise one bit that Naruto would immediately recommend going to Ichiraku's. The boy would be a ramen lover for the rest of his life.

"Sorry, Naruto," Kurenai spoke reluctantly with a tiny grin, "but I have to pass on that offer. I had already brought my lunch today," she pointed to the bag on the floor to her desk's left side, "and after I eat, I will immediately return to my class to prepare for the afternoon lesson."

Iruka matched his colleague's expression. "I too have to pass, Naruto. I as well brought my lunch in today, and I have to play catch-up with my class due to your arrival this morning." Seeing the look of disappointment on his ex-student's face, the ponytail-haired chuunin grinned reassuringly. "We'll eat together at Ichiraku's another day, Naurto. In the meantime, you can go there today with Shion and introduce her to your favorite restaurant."

Shion softly smirked. "If this is the restaurant Naruto-kun mentioned to me in his letters, Iruka-san, I certainly am interested to find out how he could consume so many bowls of ramen in one meal." Iruka snickered and Kurenai gently laughed as they watched a slight-blushing blond boy grinned down at his son's mother.

Shinobu leaned toward Miyako. "I certainly want to see this myself," he amusedly said.

"If Naruto-sama does eat that much ramen, I wonder if his brain has turned into ramen after long periods of ramen consummation," Miyako joked, her twinkling eyes set on her mistress's love.

"Very funny," Naruto took the ribbing in stride as everyone laughed.

After his mirth died down, Iruka thumbed toward the exit. "You better get going, Naruto." Naruto nodded in understanding to his ex-sensei's 'hint' that he and Kurenai wanted to eat their lunch now before the lunch period ends.

Getting the 'hint' as well, Shion stood up and asked for the baby sling from Naruto, and a few minutes later, with Haruki secured in the sling within his mother's arms, the Priestess of Demon Country smiled thankfully at the two Academy instructors. "Iruka-san, Kurenai-san, it has been a pleasure to meet you both. It's good to finally able to meet two of many important people in Naruto-kun's life."

A grinning Iruka courtesy bowed his head briefly with Kurenai following suit. "The pleasure is ours, Shion-sama. You're welcome to visit us during our off-hours, knowing you're now a part of Naruto's family."

Shion's smile broadened with warmth. "Thank you."

Iruka gave a nod in response to the young priestess before locking eyes with her two servants. "Shinobu-san, Miyako-san, it was a pleasure to meet you as well."

"Arigatou, Iruka-san," Miyako replied, while Shinobu nodded once with a grin.

After they said their final good-byes to the two teachers, Naruto, Shion with Haruki, Miyako, and Shinobu left the office and made their way out of the Academy building. There the whisker-faced young man led the way toward the area of Konoha, where was located his favorite restaurant in the entire world.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Aw, man!" a masculine shout reverberated in the grassy clearing. "One of these days, Shino, Akamaru and I will find a way to defeat your bugs without resorting to fire or water jutsus! Now get them off us! You won again anyway!"

"Indeed," came the low monotone reply from a teenage boy, whose face was mostly hidden behind a high collar shirt, black eye shades, and a hoody gray jacket. "So far, no one has yet to even come close to defeating my clan's kikai bugs without resorting to fire or water jutsus. Kiba, your attempts to even try to find another way are pointless."

Wearing a black jacket, fish-net undershirt, and pants, Inuzuka Kiba smirked wolfishly, while the kikai bugs left his and his ninken's forms. "Hey, I'll find a way yet. Just you wait and see, Shino. I might even find a way to prevent your little friends from draining the chakra out of Akamaru and me."

Pushing his shades up further his nose with a finger, Aburame Shino responded to his teammate as his kikai bugs returned to his body. "I am doubtful of that. Only one person I know alive today has an immune affect against the kikai's chakra draining ability, and that person is Naruto. His usual high chakra reserves on top of Kyuubi's chakra make him a formidable opponent."

Kiba grunted in envy as he patted Akamaru's head after the big, white dog strolled over to stand by his side. "Well, that's Naruto for you. He may had the bad luck to be chosen to have the big, bad fox sealed inside him, but least he gotten some great benefits in return. Man, I wish I could have his healing ability. To enable to recover from chakra exhaustion in less than a day sure can benefit me."

A few barks alerted the young Inuzuka to his canine partner. "What do you mean Shion's bugs are still on you?" Kiba blinked in confusion, until it dawned to him on a good reason, making him groaned. "Don't tell me that--!"

"Akamaru has some parasites on him," Shion finished for his teammate, who growled upon hearing the confirmation to his thoughts. "My allies have informed me of the situation and are now currently sweeping Akamaru to destroy the intruders."

"AAARGH!" Kiba growled in frustration as he clenched his fists. "Are the fleas and ticks these days immune to my clan's repellent jutsus?! Kami, we **hate** those little bloodsuckers! HATE THEM, HATE THEM, HATE THEM! If there is one wish my entire clan agree to come true, it's the total annihilation of every flea and tick on the entire planet!" Akamaru growled his agreement, which his master nodded at him. "You said it, Akamaru. They're a real pain in the butt alright." He paused before raising a finger. "Mosquitoes too. All those bloodsucking parasites should be extinct."

"Agreed," Shino spoke out. "They benefit no one, and mostly cause harm to their victims."

The son of Inuzuka Tsume grinned at his friend. "I'm glad to have you around, Shino. Your little friends sure make great parasite removers. Ever since we became Team 8, you provided this service for Akamaru, and once more, I can't say enough for the help at times."

The young Aburame nodded once in acceptance of the compliments. "It benefits us to have Akamaru performing at his best. The parasites will only reduce his performance if discomfort from being bitten distracts him. In return, the parasites provide my kikai bugs a snack to eat, so in the end, it benefits both of us for my allies to provide Akamaru this service."

"Akamaru and I certainly do not complain about that, my friend," Kiba grinned toothily at the bug user, and the big white dog barked happily in total concurrence.

Sitting under the shade of a tree near the edge of the clearing, gray-like violet eyes crinkled in amusement over the conversation the two male chuunins were having. In the years since joining Team 8, she had come to know her teammates well, thus she knew they had managed to grow a trust of each other's abilities as well as a good respect for each other's clans. A matter of fact, ever since Kiba and Shino had became friends, the Inuzukas had turned to the Aburames for help once in awhile in 'parasite' extermination from the Inuzuka Clan's kennels and households. Of course, it led to a big question to why the two clans had not ever had such a mutual collaboration before in the decades since Konoha's founding, but it came down to a simple fear of the kakai bugs from the Inuzukas.

Sighing with a grin for the two boys of her team, Hyuuga Hinata admitted to herself that she was glad things had turned out extremely well in the past 4 years since her and her classsmates' graduation from the Academy. With the many wars Konoha has fought, especially during the past year, it truly was a miracle that none of her close friends and family has died or suffered in any major ways. With the exception of Asuma-sensei and Jiraiya-sama, her large extended 'family' was intact.

Thinking of the late Toad Sannin made the young Hyuuga heir focused her thoughts on the Sannin's apprentice, who became the new Toad Sennin, Uzumaki Naruto. Her grin faded as she became forlorn, her eyes cast downward to the ground, for after many months since Naruto has returned to the village from his training trip with Jiraiya, Hinata still has not gotten to have a real conversation with her long-time crush. That first meeting with him after his return had been embarrassing, for she had fainted much as a weak girl instead of properly talking with him. She had not had little time to talk to him during that mission to search for Sasuke after the news of Orochimaru's death was heard. And since Pein's attack, everyone has been so busy with missions and other things to help repair the village that she has not seen much of Naruto at all.

"_Naruto-kun,"_ the young kunoichi sighed dejectedly to herself. _"Why… Why can't I get the courage to talk to you how I feel? I have become a strong kunoichi and can face many tasks and enemies on missions, but when it comes down to you, Naruto-kun, I just fall apart." _Hinata closed her eyes. _"I know the longer I keep it to myself, the more you will slip away from me. Yet do I have anything that can compete with Sakura-san or even Shion-sama, who has your first child?"_

Like everyone in the village, Hinata has heard the news of Priestess Shion's arrival several days ago and the small infant she has brought with her. Ever since it was confirmed that Naruto has been **intimate** with Shion 11 months ago, it has pained the young Hyuuga deeply in knowing another woman has gotten to be her crush's 'first time' first, and what really had drove a kunai into her heart was the news Sakura-san said that the priestess was **expecting**. Now that Shion was here with Naruto's first child, the Heir of the Hyuuga Clan knew it was a nearly impossible task to get Naruto to see her at all.

"_When Naruto returns from his mission, he will have Shion-sama here waiting for him as well as his first-born child. Knowing he will be focus on them, what chance do I have to talk to him?" _A sigh escaped her lips as pale-lavender eyes opened to gaze up at the tree braches and the beautiful way the sunlight filters through the leaves like it was dancing as the branches and leaves moved with the slight breeze. _"Why do I feel like Fate is going against me? I want to talk to him and try to get beyond my shyness, but if the opportunity doesn't present itself, how can I know whether I have a chance with him?"_

Yet despite these doubts, Hinata knew there was a small light of hope for her. Closing her eyes, she remembered the brief conversation she had with Naruto during the mission to track down Sasuke. It had been sometime before she, Naruto, and Yamato-taichou met Orochimaru's henchman, Kabuto…

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Walking down the road, the trio of Konoha shinobi and their dog companion were on alert but not so much to be consider paranoid. Given whom they were tracking, they were not taking any chances.

Glancing at her long-time crush out of the corner of her eye, Hinata knew that this might be a good time to ask him a question that has been plaguing her mind since the end of the Mouryou War. She knew of Priestess Shion and her role in the war, and she had heard of the story involving Naruto's intimacy with the foreign priestess as well as Sakura's verification that Shion was pregnant with Naruto's child. Yet despite these two facts, they were not a foregone conclusion of what was on the forefront of her mind.

"N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata stuttered out to gain the blond genin's attention.

Turning his head to his right, Naruto locked his blue eyes with Hinata's gray-lavender ones. "Yeah, Hinata?"

Drawing up her courage, the young Hyuuga girl spoke out what was on her mind. "Is it true that you were intimate with the High Priestess Shion from Demon Country and she is now carrying your child?"

The pair of questions caught the attention of Yamato as he looked at the two teenagers sideways while maintaining a forward appearance. Naruto however blinked at the questions before letting a bashful grin come to his face.

"Yeah, it's true, Hinata," admitted the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. "I made love to Shion-chan, and she told me in a letter that she is pregnant with our child. I made her a promise to help her with passing down her powers to the next generation of priestesses, so I can't back down on my word."

Hinata felt the cracks forming in her heart. It was painful, but she maintained her composure. Looking down at his moving feet, she knew she has to ask the question. "Are you in love with her?"

Naruto sadly grinned before facing forward to the road ahead. "In a way, I am in love with her." Hinata couldn't help but feel the cracks in her heart have expanded into giant ravines, so much that she felt like crying now. "Yet, in another way, we both know we can't."

This whipped up the young kunoichi's head in confusion and shock. "What do you mean, Naruto-kun?"

The young teen boy shrugged a bit. "As I told Sakura-chan, Shion-chan and I can't have a normal relationship. She lives in her village in Demon Country, and I live in Konoha. We each have our respective duties to our villages and countries. I'm planning to be Hokage someday, thus I can't leave Konoha, and she can't leave her village due that she helps run the place. So in the end, we agreed that if either of us found others to love, we're free to love them as much as we love each other."

Blinking at the revelation, Hinata's heart fluttered in revived hope. "Naruto-kun, are you s-s-saying you're free to date other women, and Shion-sama does not m-mind?"

"Yep, that's the agreement, Hinata," replied the blond genin. "She and I know we will each always be the other's first love, but that does not mean each of us will be the **only** loves in our lives."

Her heart beating with renewed love, the lavender-eyed teenager knew hope was not lost. If she could not be Naruto's first love, maybe she could his second.

The voice of their team captain brought both teenagers back to reality. "Keep on your guard, you two. Remember our mission." He didn't mind the break from routine, given it had provided a great insight to Naruto's relationship with Priestess Shion, but Yamato knew it was best to get his two charges' attention back on their mission.

"Hai!" both young shinobi responded, thus they pushed the private topic and thoughts out of the way to focus on the mission. It was a good thing too, because a few minutes later, the entire team felt someone following them.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Hinata sighed at the memories. It had been quite a mission, but other than that one moment with Naruto, she hadn't had any other opportunities to be with her favorite blond ninja. Once they had came back to Konoha, events had developed so rapidly that it seemed Naruto didn't had any free time anymore, especially after the Akatsuki War's end with all the missions to keep the revenue flowing in for the village.

"_Maybe once Shion-sama leaves to return to her village after meeting Naruto-kun, I can find the opportunity to talk to him. I can finally able to admit my feelings to him,"_ she mused to herself.

"Hey, Hinata!" the loud voice of Kiba startled the blue-tinted-haired girl out of her thoughts. "We're going now to get some lunch! Come on!" With that said, the teenage Inuzuka boy, with Akamaru besides him, followed his Aburame friend out of the training area back to the village.

Seeing her male colleagues leaving, the young Hyuuga heiress, dressed in her usual purple kunoichi outfit, quickly stood up and began trotting to catch up with them. "Wait for me!" she called out, her thoughts about Naruto momentarily forgotten in light of getting a good meal in the company of her team.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

End of Chapter 4

A/Ns:

1) If anyone wants to see what Shion looks like in this chapter with her outfit and hair, check out Highpriestess747's art of Shion at DeviantART. It can be found at highpriestess747 . deviantart . com / art / Shion-96052426 . If you're too lazy to copy-and-paste the URL and remove the spaces in between, I placed a link to the art in my author profile. ;p

And yes, credit goes to Highpriestess747 for the idea for Shion's outfit, which will be use from now on in all chapters unless mentioned otherwise. Given what Shion wore in the first Shippuuden Movie, this new outfit suits the feisty priestess well. I'm sure Naruto does not mind her wearing this attire. XD

Before anyone slams me in saying that Shion shouldn't be wearing such clothing now that she is a mother, for Kami's sake, Haruki is only two months old! It's not like she has to make an example this soon in her son's life. Besides, if she's going to be walking around Konoha, she might as well wear something more comfortable to walk in than a kimono. Her visit to Konoha is sort-of like a vacation, since she does not have to bother with the burden of running a village under her rule. :)

2) One thing I really do not like about the Shippuuden anime is the total ignorance of Naruto being the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki was supposed to be a secret according to the Third Hokage's law. Out of the blue, almost every member of the Rookie 9 knew about the secret, when I know canon-wise, Naruto did not ever tell them. Maybe Neji and Shikamaru would have figured it out, but unless Naruto told them, there was no way every single one of them would have known about his secret. Sakura and Temari were surprised when Naruto told them during the 'Rescue Gaara' arc, so it made me believe the rest of the Konoha 11 was not aware of the secret either.

So I ignored the anime (and some aspects of the manga) and went with the notion that the rest of the Konoha 12, sans Sakura, was not aware of Naruto's burden. It made sense to me in light of the Third Hokage's law.

As for Naruto being easily accepted, well, he is a hero, and given all he had done for the village, who could possible believe he is the Kyuubi after all that? Besides, Naruto's generation and those younger do not have any emotional attachments to the Kyuubi, given they have not ever experienced the attack first-hand. Only the die-hards still believe Naruto is the Kyuubi, due to their emotional experiences are perhaps too deep to accept the truth.

3) For those who figured it out, yes, there are a Yamanaka and Nara in the classroom besides the Akimichi. I can't accept that the Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi clans are just Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, and their parents. They have to have grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins or else they wouldn't be even considered as 'clans' to begin with. ;p

4) I really have no idea whether 'Ringo' is an actual Japanese name. I found the name on a Japanese Baby Name website. It stated the name means "Apple; Peace be with…" Odd, I know. It does make me wonder whether the name was taken from The Beatle's drummer, Ringo Starr.

Anyway, I needed a name for the other instructor, so I found this name and used it. Nothing significant was behind using this name.

Yet, when I found I needed a name for Kurenai's son, I found the name 'Hajime' to be fitting. It means 'beginning', and it fits well that it is the beginning of Kurenai's new life. And yes, I'm aware that the name is also an actual Japanese word with the same meaning. I guess that in Japanese, like in English, the context of the word in a sentence determines whether someone is speaking the actual word or the name.

5) Since I placed the first Shippuuden movie just before 'The Akatsuki Immortals' arc in the timeline according to my notes in "Whatever It Takes," it's clear that Kurenai's child would be born **after** Shion's. With Kurenai being pregnant, there was no doubt she had been taken off the active-duty roster, but as soon as she gave birth, knowing her, she very much wanted to help in any way in Konoha's recovery efforts. So I gave her a teaching job at the Academy, since I figured the position will give her the time and freedom to adjust her life to accommodate her child while at the same time give her a sense of pride that she would make a contribution in helping her village recover from Pein's attack. :)

Besides… with Kurenai just recently given birth, she can become one of several people for Shion to bond since both are new to motherhood for the first time in their lives. :)

6) Well, I original planned to have Naruto introduced Shion to another two 'precious' people in this chapter, but since my Muse has made me kept writing and writing for the Academy meeting and then added the Team 8 scene, I'd decided it will be best to put in the next chapter the next introduction, which has been hinted strongly at the end of this one. ;)

7) Last, I'm sure most readers have seen Chapter 431 of the manga. Naruto really kicked ass in that chapter. (Yeah!) Yet sadly, it seems the chapter has brought another 'hint' that Kakashi really has bit the bucket. It's not a real confirmation, so I'm still hoping for the best the Copy Nin has pulled through. Yet if Kishimoto really intend for Kakashi to die, then I'm sad to see it happen. I'll still keep Kakashi alive in "WIT II" though, no matter the final outcome in the manga.


End file.
